Saturday, December 9, 2017

Got Peanut Allergies? There's genes for it.

There are many life-threatening allergic reactions that affected people get when they are in the presence of a peanut. Reactions like anaphylaxis can lead to death for many, which is why research is being done to understand how and why these reactions occur.  In the first ever human trial for peanut allergy, Science Daily reports that there are six genes that "activate hundreds of other genes in children experiencing severe allergic reactions to peanuts." This is also the first study that monitors the gene expression of the children before, during, and after they have ingested the peanut. Instead of using children who do not have allergies as controls, this gives researchers a more detailed "picture" of what is happening at a genetic and molecular viewpoint. The researchers collected blood samples from 40 peanut-allergic children throughout the experiment. Subjects ingested the peanut at 20-minute intervals until an allergic reaction occurred or until 1.044 grams of peanut was ingested. Using the same protocol on a different day, the same subjects ingested incremental doses of placebo oat powder. RNA sequencing was done on the blood samples followed by computational data analyses to determine what genes and cells were activated and driving these allergic reactions.

I personally have noticed that there has been an increasing number of peanut allergies around me. Whenever I visit my elementary school, I notice that on almost every classroom door there is a sign that reads, "No Peanuts Allowed!" I only remember there only being two or three classes with that sign up when I attended the school before. I feel that this research has given other researches invaluable information on peanut allergies that has not been accessible in the past. While the EpiPen might be a temporary solution for people who endure these life-threatening reactions, there needs to be another solution that will give them long term relief.





Sources:

Mount Sinai Health System. (2017, December 5). Six genes driving peanut allergy reactions identified. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 9, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205092140.htm

https://www.foodallergy.org/common-allergens/peanut

7 comments:

  1. I agree, i have also seen an increase of peanut allergies. And its cool to see that researchers are finally doing a study on how peanuts affect people that are allergic. This research can lead to even a cure or other types of medication to help with people that are allergic.

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  2. My roommate is allergic to peanuts, we gave him a jar of peanut butter for his birthday. Allergies shouldn’t be something that is joked about but it’s serious in that I see it affect him daily and he always has an EPI at the ready. To see research come up with a long term fix would be amazing so he could actually enjoy the small things in life.

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  3. I have seen an increase in peanut allergies as well. My one friend is extremely allergic and has a life-threatening reaction to peanuts. Researching more about the allergy will hopefully open opportunities for medications and maybe help people who have this allergy be able to have less severe or no reactions.

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  4. The peanut allergy isn't just increasing in numbers, I think its also increasing in severity as well! In the past I have seen people say they cannot eat peanuts, however, now I notice some people can't even be around them without an allergic reaction taking place! Digging deeper into this allergy could be extreme, what if the epiPen decides to fail the person? A back up plan would be great! But having more details on this allergen would be even better.

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  5. As someone with a peanut allergies this is very intriguing , I see more and more people with peanut allergies each year and more and more kids with all sorts of allergies like its compounding as the generations go by.it will be nice to know that the folks having their RNA sequenced will help the future generations be relieved of the burdens of allergies. Also, if this interests you there is a study that was published a few years ago that shows links between allergies and what the mother eats during pregnancy.

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  6. This post was very interesting to read! I agree with your comments that there needs to be a long term treatment. I work at a daycare and there has been a drastic increase in peanut allergies. I like how this study focused on the understanding peanut allergies and why these reactions are occurring but I think that they should have used the study to try out different treatments. EpiPens are only short term relief. Scientist should be working on something that will help "cure" these allergies and testing them to see the effectiveness of the treatments.

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  7. This was a pretty neat study. I know a couple people with this allergy. If they can do this type of research on the peanut allergy I hope they start working to see if other allergies or maybe all allergies are genetic. If so maybe, in time, there will be great advances made that will rid these allergies from our population for good.

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