Enzyme potentiated desensitization

Enzyme potentiated desensitization (EPD), is a treatment for allergies developed in the 1960s by Dr. Leonard M. McEwen in the United Kingdom. EPD uses much lower doses of antigens than conventional desensitization treatment paired with the enzyme β-glucuronidase. EPD is approved in the United Kingdom for the treatment of hay fever, food allergy and intolerance and environmental allergies. Enzyme potentiated desensitization (EPD), is a treatment for allergies developed in the 1960s by Dr. Leonard M. McEwen in the United Kingdom. EPD uses much lower doses of antigens than conventional desensitization treatment paired with the enzyme β-glucuronidase. EPD is approved in the United Kingdom for the treatment of hay fever, food allergy and intolerance and environmental allergies. EPD was developed for the treatment of autoimmune disease by the United Kingdom company Epidyme which was owned by Dr. McEwen and had been granted a United Kingdom patent. Despite encouraging results in an experimental model of rheumatoid arthritis the company was placed into liquidation in April 2010. EPD was available in the United States until 2001, when the Food and Drug Administration revoked approval for an investigative study which it had previously sanctioned. That study had allowed EPD to be imported into the United States without being licensed. The approval was revoked because the EPD treatments included complex mixtures of allergens that were not allowed under FDA rules. Since 2001, the FDA has banned importation of EPD for the following reasons: A related treatment, Low Dose Allergens (LDA), was developed in the US by Dr. Shrader, which, being a compounding rather than a drug, is not regulated by the FDA. In addition, LDA uses a different allergen mix for the US environment. However, LDA is considered by many in the field to be a repackaging of EPD that circumvents the FDA guidelines that caused EPD to be revoked. The enzyme beta glucuronidase appears to potentiate the desensitizing effect of a small dose of allergen. The quantities of both are smaller than those occurring naturally in the body, but not so small that they can be regarded as homeopathic. Intradermal injections are used. The treatment takes 3–4 weeks before any effect is seen. For food and environmental allergies and intolerances treatments are typically given at two monthly intervals at first, but the interval between treatments is gradually lengthened. Hay fever is treated with two shots of EPD outside the pollen season.