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Treatment targeting peanut allergy 'within five years'

02/05/2008

A treatment to target peanut allergy could be available within five years, a US health expert has claimed.

Professor Wesley Burks at the Duke University Medical Centre writes in the Lancet journal today that it is likely "some type" of immunotherapy will be developed.

Immunotherapy stimulates the body's own immune system to respond to infectious agents.

Peanut allergy affects around one per cent of children under the age of five years and is a disease controlled by the immunoglobulin E (IgE) part of the immune system.

Once peanut protein is ingested, it crosslinks with IgE antibodies and causes release of inflammatory molecules.

This triggers potentially life-threatening reactions including inflammation of the skin, respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract.

As a result of the severity of these reactions, Professor Burks said "effective treatments need to be developed".

In his Lancet report he outlines work that has been undertaken recently on such treatments, including strategies designed to alter the immune system's response to food allergens.

Scientists have attempted to create transgenic plants to produce hypoallergenic peanuts and other studies have looked at curbing the immune response or inducing tolerance by the immune system in response to a specific food allergen.

"These studies offer the possibility of at least raising the threshold of the amount of peanut that it would take to cause a life-threatening allergic reaction," Professor Burks concludes.

"Whether these types of treatments are likely to cause eventual clinical tolerance to develop remains to be seen. It is likely that in the next five years there will be some type of immunotherapy available for peanut allergic individuals."