Life without Reese’s peanut butter cups
Sounds unthinkable, but this is the reality for over 3 million Americans who suffer from nut allergies (they might be able to blame their moms). And while I can only imagine what it must be like to avoid every food that could contain a nut product or that may have been in contact with one, I’m willing to bet that it’s even more annoying to actually have an allergic reaction…especially when that reaction can include anaphylactic shock and death.
This is the part where science fixes everything: researchers at Northwestern University have developed a technique that effectively cures peanut allergies in mice, and would presumably work in humans as well. Not only that, but the technique could easily be applied to eradicate an allergy to eggs, or strawberries, or shellfish…whatever your immune system has been keeping you from enjoying.
Thanks, science.
Food allergies are weird. Basically, you eat something, it gets broken down, and sometimes the food has proteins in it that the body doesn’t digest. In food allergy sufferers, the immune system will recognize this foreign protein and raise hell about it (i.e. trigger inflammation). When you’ve inadvertently ingested some disease-causing bacteria, this is a great response; when you’ve eaten a chocolate bar that has brushed against peanut dust in some factory, this response is just unfortunate.
Here’s the undigested peanut protein that enters your bloodstream after you eat a peanut product (maybe it was in your food by accident or maybe you succumbed to the undeniable greatness that is Reese’s peanut butter cups
Red blood cells are apathetic to peanut protein. It’s white blood cells that are the problem, specifically helper T cells. You can consider helper T cells the tattletales of the immune system. No one likes a tattletale.
And those helper T cells are going to blow the freaking whistle. By which I mean they’re going to tell B cells about peanut protein:
And when B cells find out about peanut protein, they get pissed. That is, they attack peanut protein with tons of antibodies called IgE:
Once the antibodies are out, a whole slew of inflammatory cells and molecules are recruited, causing the classic allergic reactions like hives, itchiness, and airway constriction.
So back to those scientists at Northwestern. They tethered peanut protein to white blood cells, then injected those cells into mice with peanut allergies. (Mice have peanut allergies? Yes, the mice were developed years ago at Northwestern, specifically for studying this food allergy.)
This process effectively helped the immune systems of these mice become acclimated to peanut proteins. When the mice were subsequently fed peanut extract, they exhibited little-to-no immune response; without the procedure, they would have gone into anaphylatic shock. This process was repeated with an egg protein (egg allergies are also quite common), and similar anti-allergy benefits were observed.
So there you have it! Maybe one day food allergies will be no big deal, thanks to a procedure like this one. Do you have a food allergy, but wish you didn’t? Tell us about it in a comment!
Des Roches A, Bégin P, Infante-Rivard C, Paradis J, & Paradis L (2011). Peanut allergy and the impact of maternal consumption during pregnancy and breast-feeding. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 128 (1) PMID: 21565392
Smarr CB, Hsu CL, Byrne AJ, Miller SD, & Bryce PJ (2011). Antigen-fixed leukocytes tolerize th2 responses in mouse models of allergy. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950), 187 (10), 5090-8 PMID: 21976774
Interesting research. I’m wondering how undigested protein would end up in the bloodstream in the first place. Shouldn’t it have been digested or at least not have been able to cross the intestinal barrier?
Hey Jon, those are great questions, especially because it seems difficult to find an answer. I don’t think anyone knows why some foods contain proteins that are more resistant to digestion than those in other foods. All I can say is that these undigested proteins are still “immunologically intact” when they cross the intestinal barrier, although I can’t guess which transporter/channel would facilitate such large molecules. I’ve seen this suggestion that the epithelial barrier of the intestine is dysfunctional in the case of food allergies, so maybe cell-to-cell junctions are disrupted and the proteins slip through the cracks.
Thanks for reading, and for making me think!
Interesting link to Pubmed. I have a peanut allergy, diagnosed when I was about 2, though I didn’t receive breastfeeding because I refused or some such nonsense. Maybe my mom mainlined peanuts while pregnant
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There’s a lot of studies nowadays about desensitizing people with allergies, a friend of mine underwent a 2 year program to get rid of his pollen allergies. Many of these programs seem to be fairly successful, though I would not even consider trying this personally for my peanut allergy since I am extremely sensitive (I once woke up in hospital after suffering from anaphylactic shock). From everything I’ve read desensitisation is better suited to those with mild allergies.
Besides, I’m thoroughly conditioned not to like peanuts by now so why change that when I’m in my 40s unless the procedure has been tested extremely well in humans.
I definitely agree with your last point…everyone with serious food allergies is probably so accustomed to avoiding particular foods, they might not even want to necessarily “undo” the allergy. Unless, of course, it’s simply so life-threatening that they just want to get rid of the risk.
It will be interesting to see how mild vs. severe allergies might respond to a treatment like this.
This has got to be the best explanation of the immune response…ever!
Haha, thanks Meg! It is tons of fun to think of science this way
Yeah – science can be soooo fun eh? Especially when your experiments could cause a poor mouse to go into anaphylactic shock. Fuck science experimentation on animals. People get cancer, allergies, conditions, etc every fucking day. It’s nature’s population control mixed with some fucking idiot humans eating shit instead of wholesome food, sitting on their fat asses and being exposed to carcinogens because of other idiot humans. In 50 years it won’t fucking matter wether we are allergic to fucking peanuts or not. Idiots.
So you…don’t like…animal research. Um, that’s fine. But I have to be honest — this may not be the site for you.
Quote from my Animal Research page: “Nearly all of the research that I feature will include experiments on animals that are being used to model human diseases…. I want to be clear in saying that all research on this website is conducted in accordance with rules regulating the treatment and care of research animals, such that the minimum possible numbers of animals are used and all suffering is minimized.”
I don’t think we’d be around to have this conversation without animal research, but you’re welcome to share your opinions. Thanks for reading!
I agree, I started laughing hysterically in the lab and was getting weird looks.
Yeah, boy! Northwestern, hit ‘em with the flex! Hail to Alma Mater, bro. Also, I’m super excited about this because my girlfriend is super allergic to peanuts. It’d be dope if she didn’t have to worry about it so much anymore. Even if allergic reactions couldn’t be completely defeated, it would still be cool to worry less about it. But yeah, word up to NU and the research that they’re doing 500 meters outside of my dorm room.
Haha, yeah I definitely thought of you when I saw who did the work — loving the school spirit! And I didn’t know your girlfriend was allergic…I agree, no one should have to worry about dying from food, in my opinion. Thanks for stopping by!!
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“Oh, Hell No!” Too cute. As a person who has suddenly developed an allergy to just about EVERYTHING, this makes me a little more hopeful for the future. Ive had to eliminate entire food groups, and there are slim pickings in the food groups that are left. Its a complete disaster. People dont realize that not only can you not ingest the food, you can’t inhale it, use bath and body products with it, or have a friend or family member hug or kiss you after they’ve eaten it. I cant go to the movies because of the popcorn… It changes the way you do everything. I’d be happy just to get a few foods back so I can have a little variety. I hope this new research works out.