Taming the Peanut Gallery

It's interesting to learn how antibodies are being created (or induced by artificial antigens) to stimulate the body's immune system to fight disease. But this is a twist: antibodies are being created (or induced) to reduce the anaphylactic reaction that occurs when peanut proteins stimulate mast cell release of inflammatory reactants into the bloodstream. In other words, these antibodies are supposed to reduce peanut allergies.

An estimated 1.5 million Americans, including some 600,000 children, experience allergic reactions to peanuts, ranging from hives to nausea to sometimes-fatal anaphylactic shock. With most of the annual 150 food-allergy deaths blamed on peanuts, many schools have created peanut-free zones or gone totally "peanut free."

The number of children with peanut allergies has skyrocketed, doubling from 1997 to 2002, according to a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Nobody knows why, and the peanut association continues to funnel millions to develop ways to reduce peanut allergy. Some of the other ways researchers are tackling the problem.

There is a vaccine being developed made of "slightly modified the three peanut proteins responsible for most reactions so they don't trigger such strong reactions from human mast cells. By administering the modified proteins to subjects in slowly increasing doses, they hope to condition their immune systems to tolerate more."

Another approach with some success so far: "powdered or liquid peanut proteins [is administered] to patients in incrementally increasing doses, starting with 0.001 peanut the first day, to one whole peanut six months later. They hope one day to develop a drug or a physician-administered therapy. In a trial completed on eight patients, Dr. Burks says the subjects tolerated 13 peanuts before experiencing a reaction -- enough, in theory, to save an allergic child's life in case of accidental ingestion."

Yet another take is going to the root of the problem: "to disable the Ara h 2 gene [' responsible for a protein that causes reactions in about 90% of patients with peanut allergy'] by modifying the peanut plant's genetic structure."

(Courtesy of the 29 Sept 2006 WSJ article "Taming Peanut Allergy Takes Researchers Down Uncertain Road" by Jane Zhang.)