New Therapeutic Strategies for Peanut-Related Allergy. 2016

The health effects of peanut allergy draw rising attention around the world. The concept of food allergy and new therapies are being developed to specifically treat peanut allergy. Peanuts are a large part of the United States diet, with peanut butter consumption estimated in 90% of US households. The average American consumes over six pounds of peanuts and/or peanut butter products in a calendar year, which equates to over 1.5. billion pounds of peanut butter and peanut products per year (2014). Nutritionally, a one ounce serving of unsalted, roasted peanuts provides 80 calories, with 60 calories coming from fat. Traditionally, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have been a staple of children’s diets including school lunches, with estimates that an average child will eat 1500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before he/she graduates from high school (nationalpeanutboard.org, 2014). Despite the widespread popularity of peanuts, there is a growing concern that peanuts may have adverse effects on health, particularly in the form of a food allergy. Food allergy is a growing health problem in the US and worldwide which is continuing to rise in prevalence. Current standard of care continues to be strict avoidance of the known trigger food and preparation for an accidental ingestion and reaction. Without an active treatment or prevention strategy for food allergy, this health problem is likely to continue rising until a viable, effective treatment is readily available. Among developing treatment modalities, there is a growing body of evidence that supports the efficacy in desensitizing patients with oral immunotherapy, sublingual immunotherapy, and possibly epicutaneous immunotherapy. However, questions regarding the overall safety and the potential for long-term tolerance still remain unanswered at the current time. Future therapeutic strategies also include traditional Chinese medicine, the use of heat-killed bacteria, antigen-coupled cell transfer, and probiotic bacteria. Taken together, these treatment modalities offer hope that there may one day be an effective treatment for food allergy.