Peanut Allergies
Background
In the United States approximately 50 million people are affected by allergies and the vast majority of allergic reactions are not life-threatening. Allergic reactions can range in severity from mild, requiring little to no intervention, to moderate, which may be treated with antihistamines to address any discomfort, to severe, which require rapid medical intervention with epinephrine in order to prevent/limit anaphylaxis and possibly death. These symptoms may manifest within minutes to hours of exposure to the allergen depending on the type of exposure and dose. The prevalence of food allergies in the U.S. includes 6-8% of all children under the age of 4 and approximately 3.7% of adults (1 and 2). Allergies to peanuts affect approximately 1.5 million people in the United States (3).
In the past 5 to 10 years the incidence of peanut allergy has risen dramatically in children and young adults. Some estimates indicate that peanut allergy has doubled in U.S. children in the last 5 years (4). The cause of this sudden rise has not been identified, but several hypotheses have been proposed including the extremely low incidence of many infectious diseases or the increasing level of hygiene depriving the immune system of numerous stimuli. This proposed lack of immune challenge may increase the incidence of sensitization to other substances, including foods, and a general rise in allergic reactions and the sharp rise in peanut allergies.
Currently, awareness and prevention are instrumental in preventing allergic reactions and individuals with severe/life threatening food allergies should carry injectable epinephrine in the event of accidental exposure. Two reports by Bock and co-workers have shown that the clear majority of deaths attributed to anaphylactic reactions to foods between 1991 and 2006 were due to accidental exposure to peanuts and, in many cases, a lack of availability to epinephrine following exposure (5 and 6).
Overview of the Project
This research currently utilizes an inbred (laboratory) mouse model for the study of life threatening/severe peanut allergy. The goal of this work is to identify and target key cells of the immune system and then use immune-modulation to decrease the severity of or completely block allergic reactions following exposure to peanuts. Simply stated, this research is to designed test and identify strategies that will be; 1. safe to administer and 2. effective in decreasing the severity of allergic reactions in people with severe/life-threatening allergic reactions to peanuts.
References:
1. Sampson HA, Muñoz-Furlong A, Campbell RL, Adkinson, Jr NF, Bock SA, Branum A, et al. Second Symposium on the Definition and Management of Anaphylaxis: Summary Report—Second National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease/Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network Symposium, Ann. Emerg. Med. 2006;47:373-380.
2. Galli S and Metcalfe D, Introduction: Nature and Scope of the Problem. Report of the NIH Expert Panel on Food Allergy Research, March 13-14, 2006 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health online report (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/healthscience/healthtopics/foodAllergy/ReportFoodAllergy.htm).
3. Li XM, Zhang TF, Huang CK, Srivastava K, Teper AA, Zhang L, et al. Food Allergy Herbal Formula-1 (FAHF-1) blocks peanut-induced anaphylaxis in a murine model, J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 2001;108:639-46.
4. Food Allergy An Overview, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH Publication No. 04-5518. July 2004 (http://www.niaid.nih.gov).
5. Bock SA, Mun˜oz-Furlong A, Sampson HA. Fatalities due to anaphylactic reactions to foods, J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 2001;107:191-3.
6. Bock SA, Mun˜oz-Furlong A, Sampson HA. Further fatalities caused by anaphylactic reactions to food, 2001-2006. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 2007; 119 (4):1016-18.
To learn more about the research, you may contact Dr. Little at chrisl@pcom.edu.