Peanut gene

[R]esearchers from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences may have taken an important first step toward creating a non-allergenic peanut.

The researchers have found that one of the allergenic proteins in peanuts is sometimes produced with a portion missing—resulting in a form that apparently doesn’t trigger a bad reaction by human immune systems.

“If we can somehow breed or create a peanut where all the allergenic proteins are in forms that are as benign as this one, that would be a big step for making life much easier for the millions of people who are sensitive—sometimes deathly so—to a substance that the rest of us like to eat so much that it’s virtually everywhere,” said Maria Gallo, a plant molecular biologist who conducted the research with her graduate student, Il-Ho Kang. Their work has been published online by the journal Plant Science and will appear in an upcoming issue of the publication.

Peanuts are known for being loaded with protein, but over the years scientists have reported about 20 types of protein molecules that seem to trigger an overblown immune response in those with peanut sensitivities. The three that cause the most problems are dubbed Ara h 1, Ara h 2 and Ara h 3.

The latter, however, sometimes shows up in a form that’s slightly different than that found in most peanuts. This altered protein has been named Ara h 3-im. The UF researchers extracted peanut proteins and exposed them to blood drawn from two people who are allergic to peanuts and one who isn’t.

The normal form of the protein set off a severe reaction in the samples from the allergenic patients, but Ara h 3-im produced none—showing that the patients’ immune defenses didn’t recognize this altered protein.

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In the end, building a better peanut might not need to be the ultimate goal. Understanding why the human immune system doesn’t overreact to this particular form of protein could play a vital role in other efforts to protect those with peanut sensitivities, such as efforts to create a peanut allergy vaccine.

University of Florida News