Antigen-specific immunotherapy may prevent food allergy reactions

A research group at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has shown a technique called antigen-specific immunotherapy may be able to inhibit allergic responses to peanuts and restore tolerance to peanut proteins in sensitized individuals. The group received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food Allergy Initiative to conduct the work.

Researchers attached peanut antigens to leukocytes and injected these into experimental mice with peanut allergy. After treating the mice twice with such antigens, the mice were fed a peanut extract and their immune responses were studied. The antigen treatment was shown to prevent allergic responses to the peanut extract.

A second part of the study used the same technique to investigate whether it could prevent an egg-protein induced respiratory reaction in a mouse model and the results were the same.

While the method has been investigated as a therapy for autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, it has not previously been used in relation to food allergy. The researchers believe the method holds great promise, with the potential for more than one antigen to be introduced at a time. This would induce tolerance to multiple food allergens.

Reference: Smarr et al. 2011. Journal of Immunology. DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1100608