Immunotherapy for Peanut Allergy

Peanut allergy is one of the most serious of the immediate hypersensitivity reactions to foods in terms of persistence and severity of the reaction and appears to be a growing problem. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (IT) is currently being examined as a treatment option because of the persistence of this hypersensitivity reaction and the lack of effective treatment. An understanding of the molecular mechanisms of peanut-specific IT is vital to ensure the eventual, successful treatment of peanut-allergic patients. The goal of this proposal is to develop peanut immunotherapy (IT) for patients with peanut allergic reactions. This innovative application is designed to utilize the extensive knowledge of the allergens involved in peanut hypersensitivity to devise an immunotherapeutic approach that would lower the risk of anaphylactic reactions and would down regulate peanut-specific T cells in peanut-allergic patients. Previous attempts to utilize peanut-specific immunotherapy have been unsuccessful primarily because of the severe side effects of therapy. The specific aim of the study is to desensitize/tolerize peanut-allergic subjects with peanut allergen-specific, sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) and begin to determine the molecular mechanism of the peanut-specific T-cell response during SLIT. The hypothesis is that peanut SLIT will desensitize patients with peanut allergic reactions by the induction of peanut specific regulatory T cells resulting in immune modulation of the peanut allergic reaction.