Australian scientists have identified peanut proteins that could be translated into the world 's first treatment for the often lethal food allergy, said Professor Robyn O'Hehir from Melbourne's The Alfred hospital and Monash University on Friday.
The research identified some "dominant fragments" of peanut proteins that lab tests showed were able to interact with immune cells from an allergic person to build tolerance with no sign of triggering anaphylaxis.
"These dominant fragments are the best candidates for a peanut allergy vaccine," said O'Hehir who led the research.
"Immunotherapy is commonly used to treat people who are allergic to wasp and bee stings (where) protein extracts from the venom are given in increasing doses to desensitize the individual, " O'Hehir said.
"Until now, peanuts have been regarded as too dangerous an allergy-provoker to try immunotherapy, however the latest discovery overcomes this problem."
O'Hehir said the peanut proteins could be translated into a therapy being tested clinical trials within three years and, if proven safe and effective, a world-first treatment could follow " within five to seven years".
It would not be a once-off jab but instead people with the potentially lethal allergy would have a series of injections, over weeks or months, to gradually increase their tolerance.
The same research team has also made recent headway with grass pollen, with a desensitizing therapy now in a clinical trial in the United States.
O'Hehir said about one in every hundred in the population have peanut allergy and, of these, about one in four can have a life- threatening reaction.
"So this would be a huge benefit to patients, to have an effective and safe vaccine to treat peanut allergy," she said.
The research was supported by the Ilhan Food Allergy Foundation, and is published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
