A vaccine may successfully turn off peanut allergy in mice, a new study shows.
Research from University of Michigan's Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center shows that three monthly doses of a nasal vaccine protected the mice from allergic reactions upon exposure to peanut.
In a new study, researches say immunizing peanut allergy mice can redirect how immune cells responded to peanuts in allergic mice.
“We’re changing the way the immune cells respond upon exposure to allergens,” says lead author Jessica O’Konek, Ph.D. a research investigator at the food allergy center. “Importantly, we can do this after allergy is established, which provides for potential therapy of allergies in humans.”
The mouse models studied responded to peanut allergies similarly as affected humans, with symptoms that included itchy skin and trouble breathing.
The findings are another step toward a potential clinical trial down the road to test the method in humans.
“Right now, the only FDA approved way to address food allergy is to avoid the food or suppress allergic reactions after they have already started,” O’Konek says. “Our goal is to use immunotherapy to change the immune system’s response by developing a therapeutic vaccine for food allergies.”
