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Histamine intolerance - causes, assessment of genetic predisposition, and treatment

Publication at Third Faculty of Medicine |
2019

Abstract

Histamine intolerance is disbalance in storing and removing histamine from the body, it can have a variety of causes. It is either temporary stage associated with other medical conditions such as damage to gut epithelium, or congenital and chronic stage, which requires long-term diet restrictions combined with antihistamine treatment.

Genetic tests should be indicated with the aim to reveal the cause of histamine intolerance. Nowadays, genetic testing focuses mainly on the activity of diamine oxidase (DAO), which is associated with histamine intolerance, but usually is not used for the prediction of later development of histamine intolerance.

The genetic testing of DAO activity enables to distinguish congenital histamine intolerance from other conditions with similar symptoms that are induced by other factors. Probably, further research and mainly genome-wide analyses will uncover histamine intolerance genetics and facilitates the prediction of this disorder.

Better understanding of histamine intolerance genetics will also lead to the formulation of hypothesis concerning the evolutionary roots of the disease, which might be associated with the role of histamine in anti-parasite immune defence.