Researchers Block Peanut Allergy Reactions in Mice

(Image: Vladislav Nikonov/Unsplash) You probably know someone with a peanut allergy—or maybe you’re allergic. More than one in every 100 people suffer from a severe peanut allergy, requiring that they take great care to avoid what could be a deadly legume. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if folks with peanut intolerances could safely let their guard down or even enjoy what was once too chancy?

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have successfully blocked peanut-related allergic reactions in mice, suggesting that humans might someday bask in similar dietary freedom. By giving the mice a custom covalent heterobivalent inhibitor (cHBI), chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Başar Bilgiçer and his colleagues were able to prevent the onset of potentially fatal reactions.

Bilgiçer’s team originally created the cHBI in 2019 when they began researching solutions to peanut allergies. Peanut allergies are the product of peanut proteins binding with immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies atop immune cells. This prompts the immune cells to produce (among other things) histamines, which are behind most allergic reactions. As of 2019, no medications existed that prevented or mitigated this process. This inspired Bilgiçer to lead the development of an inhibitor that would prevent peanut proteins from binding with IgE.

Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Başar Bilgiçer. (Image: University of Notre Dame
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry)

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the researchers transplanted human immune cells into test mice. They then gave each mouse a single dose of cHBI before injecting peanut proteins into the rodents’ bloodstreams. Bilgiçer’s team found that cHBI prevented allergic reactions for more than two weeks. Interestingly, administering cHBI after the onset of an allergic reaction appeared to stop that reaction in its tracks, preventing both fatal anaphylaxis and milder symptoms.

Should Bilgiçer’s cHBI prove equally useful in humans (and not just a “humanized mouse model”), it could bump peanuts down from their position as the most deadly food-based allergen. It could also serve as a platform upon which researchers can build other allergic reaction inhibitors, thus diminishing the effects of intolerances to tree nuts, shellfish, and other common allergens. Don’t take off that allergen bracelet just yet, though; the team is working on moving their research to a preclinical trial, which means it’ll be a bit before we know how effective their cHBI is in people.

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