Hong Kong scientists develop fish allergy ‘ladder’ after testing 249 children
- CUHK professor says fish ‘essential’ for child’s growth and there is ‘unmet need to effectively assess patients for selective tolerance’
Scientists from a university in Hong Kong have identified a “ladder” system providing personalised seafood avoidance for patients allergic to fish after finding a significant portion of them showed tolerance to certain species.
The department of paediatrics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) recruited 249 fish-allergic children with a median age of 4.2 years and found that 40 per cent of them reported tolerance of at least one type of fish.
The team thus built a “fish allergenicity ladder” system based on the clinical tolerance pattern, corresponding to ꞵ-parvalbulmin, a kind of protein in the fish’s flesh and also the major allergen of patients allergic to fish.
Leung Ting-fan, a professor in the department of paediatrics who led the study, said on Tuesday that fish was a highly nutritious food that contained crucial nutrients such as protein and Omega-3s that were essential for the growth of children.
“There is an unmet need to effectively assess patients for selective tolerance to fish in daily practice, so that they can be offered appropriate and safe clinical advice,” Leung said.
According to Agnes Leung Sze-yin, an assistant professor from the team, parvalbumin is highly identical in different fishes.
