Peanut allergy: Fat molecule treatment may prevent severe reaction in mice

Consuming a fats molecule produced by intestine micro organism seems to supply safety in opposition to anaphylaxis brought on by peanut allergy

By Carissa Wong

Consuming a fats molecule produced by intestine micro organism might forestall mice with extreme peanut allergy symptoms from experiencing a life-threatening immune response. The findings recommend the strategy might forestall this anaphylaxis response in folks with meals allergy symptoms and it might even forestall folks growing allergy symptoms within the first place.

Anaphylaxis generally includes nausea, stomach ache and impaired respiration or bother swallowing. Over the previous decade, researchers have discovered {that a} fats molecule known as butyrate, which is produced by intestine micro organism, can cut back these allergic reactions in mice. Individuals with meals allergy symptoms additionally appear to have much less butyrate-producing micro organism than non-allergic folks do, suggesting that boosting butyrate might assist them.

Nonetheless, butyrate can odor like canine faeces or rancid butter, making it disagreeable to swallow. What’s extra, when taken orally, it breaks down earlier than reaching the decrease intestine the place its useful results happen.

Now, Shijie Cao on the College of Chicago in Illinois and his colleagues have developed a approach to masks the foul odor of butyrate and ship the molecule to the decrease intestine, by packaging it inside spherical capsules known as micelles which can be as much as 30 nanometres broad. “We developed this drug supply platform, polymeric micelles, to ship butyrate to the intestine to deal with meals allergy symptoms,” says Cao, who introduced the work at a gathering of the American Chemical Society in Chicago on 21 August.

The researchers handled 80 mice with an antibiotic to cut back their ranges of butyrate-producing intestine micro organism, then gave them extreme peanut allergy symptoms by giving them peanut protein together with an immune-stimulating toxin for 4 weeks. They then gave the micelles to half the mice twice a day for 2 weeks, with the opposite half receiving a saline resolution as a management, earlier than feeding all the animals 1 milligram of peanut protein.

Whereas the management mice developed anaphylaxis from the peanut protein, as measured by a drop of their core physique temperature and elevated immune exercise, the mice that acquired the micelles didn’t. “It was a really thrilling second after we noticed the outcomes, that the butyrate prevented anaphylaxis,” says Cao.

By analysing the micro organism within the mouse faeces earlier than and after therapy, the group then discovered that the butyrate-carrying micelles boosted the expansion of butyrate-producing micro organism, suggesting that the therapy might alter the intestine microbiome to supply extra of its personal butyrate.

“We’re aiming for creating a distinct segment for these wholesome micro organism to develop utilizing this therapy, in order that the micelles don’t should be taken for a really very long time,” says Cao.

The researchers additionally hope that the therapy can be utilized to stop folks growing many forms of meals allergy symptoms within the first place. “The strategy ought to work on any meals allergen,” says Cao. “We think about the micelles might are available a packet, and also you simply add it to a glass of water.”

“Brief-chain fatty acids [like butyrate] might completely forestall meals allergy,” says Charles Mackay at Monash College in Melbourne, Australia. “This work might have a huge effect if the therapies work in people. We have to do the trials and I’m very optimistic. Present therapies are crude and unconvincing.”

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