AllerGY Plex: Non-IgG-Mediated Food Allergy Test for Infants

Summary

One to ten percent of children worldwide suffer from food allergies (FAs). In Chile, 4.9% of infants suffer from intestinal bleeding, diarrhea with mucus, vomiting, regurgitation or abdominal cramps, symptoms that manifest themselves within hours or days after directly ingesting a certain food or through breast milk or formula. This situation leads to nutritional deficiencies and can even put infants’ life at risk, in addition to placing a high emotional and social burden on the quality of life of patients and their families. Currently, overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of FAs are more frequent than correct diagnosis, because there is no effective method for detecting food allergies in infants.

AllerGY Plex is a non-IgG-mediated diagnostic test for FAs based on the multi-analytical detection of cytokines in stool that enables diagnostic classification using artificial intelligence techniques (supervised machine learning).

The use of a diagnostic kit in stool based on the detection of a panel of cytokines accurately identifies healthy infants with a non-IgG-mediated food allergy, generating a validated prototype for diagnosing this pathology.

The technology offers an effective, fast and reliable alternative to the current Oral Food Challenge (OFC) that yields a subjective result if it is not supervised and takes 15 to 30 days for the results to be published since it requires an elimination diet

Potential Applications

Detecting non-IgG-mediated food allergies in infants.

Development Status 

TRL 3. Proof of concept in laboratory. Patient testing has begun. Research continues with a view to validate and expand the concept.

Advantages

• Non-invasive test. The sample is obtained from the stool in the diaper.
• Provides diagnostic certainty
• Takes less time to obtain diagnosis
• Fewer unnecessary laboratory and other tests 
• Reduces the need for mother and child food elimination diets
• Reduces the costs associated with hypoallergenic formulas, medical leave and other aspects.

Intellectual Property

Patent Application No. PCT/CL2019/050154 Pending

Opportunity

Looking for investors interested in supporting further research and validation of a revolutionary technology that provides a solution with significant global upscaling potential. 

Research Team 

• Arturo Borzutzky, MD 
• Juan Cristóbal Gana, MD
• Carolina Iturriaga, RN
• Hernán González, MD PhD
• Lorena Cifuentes, MD
• Guillermo Pérez, BT
• Paul Harris, MD
• Sara Concha, MD