Sublingual Drops for Delayed Food Allergy Identification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for testing and treating delayed food allergies are cumbersome, invasive, and often ineffective, as they require significant dietary changes and invasive testing, and typically focus on IgE-mediated reactions, neglecting non-IgE mediated Type IV reactions.
Innovation Solution
A system and method using sublingual drops that target dendritic cells under the tongue with a combination of common food extracts in specific dilutions, allowing patients to continue their normal diet while identifying and treating delayed food allergies, utilizing a Food Sensitivity Questionnaire and a series of dilution charts to tailor treatment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If invasive testing methods (intracutaneous skin tests, RAST tests) are used to identify delayed food allergies, then measurement precision is improved, but patient comfort and ease of operation deteriorate due to invasive procedures and potential anaphylactic reactions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses sublingual drops as an intermediary method between non-invasive approaches and invasive testing. The drops contain food extracts in specific dilutions that are applied under the tongue, allowing allergen identification without skin puncture or blood draws, thus maintaining patient comfort while achieving diagnostic accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the concentration parameter of food extracts by using specific dilutions (e.g., 1:1000, 1:10000) to reduce allergenicity while maintaining diagnostic capability. This parameter modification allows safe testing without triggering anaphylactic reactions associated with undiluted extracts
2Reliability
If elimination diets and rotation diets are used to test for delayed food allergies, then reliability of diagnosis is improved, but productivity and loss of time worsen due to extended testing periods and dietary restrictions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary grouping of food extracts into categories (e.g., grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits) before testing. This preliminary organization allows systematic evaluation of multiple allergens simultaneously through sublingual drops, avoiding the need for lengthy sequential elimination diets while maintaining diagnostic reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple food extracts into a single sublingual drop formulation containing various allergens in specific dilutions. This merging allows patients to test multiple potential allergens at once, dramatically reducing the time required compared to sequential elimination or rotation diets
3Ease of operation
If sublingual drops with multiple food extracts are used, then device complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision may deteriorate due to difficulty in identifying specific causative allergens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the testing process into multiple phases: initial broad-spectrum testing with grouped food extracts, followed by targeted testing with specific extracts based on symptom response. This segmentation maintains ease of operation while progressively narrowing down to identify the specific causative allergen with high precision
Data Source
AI summary
A method for testing, treating, and preventing delayed food allergies includes: receiving detailed symptom, medical, and dietary histories from a patient; formulating a combination of one or more food extracts at selected concentrations for sublingual administration over a trial period; determining whether the patient's symptoms have improved, worsened, or had no change, in response to the administration of the combination; and altering the combination in response to whether the patient's symptoms have improved, worsened, or not changed, so as to induce immune system food tolerance.