STANFORD, Calif-- A team led by a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine has developed vaccines that vastly reduce or eliminate dogs’ allergic reactions to three major food allergens: peanuts, milk and wheat. The vaccines’ benefits lasted at least three months.

The research, published in the Nov. 12 online edition of the journal Allergy and completed jointly with scientists at UC-San Francisco, UC-Davis and UC-Berkeley, is the first to reverse pre-existing food allergies in an animal other than a mouse. The vaccines provide new hope to the millions of people who suffer from food allergies.

“Food allergy is an important problem for which there is no good treatment,” said Dale Umetsu, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics at Stanford and chief of the division of allergy and immunology at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. “Developing a cure for this growing problem will help millions of people and save lives.”

Food allergies occur in 1 to 2 percent of adults and up to 8 percent of children age 8 or younger. “Currently, the only treatment is to avoid the relevant food,” said Umetsu. “Unfortunately, that’s often difficult.” Accidental exposures happen because peanut and milk products are present in many processed foods.

About 100 people, mostly children, die annually as a result of accidental exposures that produce a systemic allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At its most severe, anaphylactic shock involves cardiac arrest and/or airway swelling so severe that a person can suffocate if not immediately treated with epinephrine, a strong antihistamine. Peanuts are the most common culprit.

In a paper published in 2003, other researchers prevented peanut allergy in mice by vaccinating them with HKL and peanuts. Umetsu’s research takes that approach to a larger mammal – an important step because dogs’ allergic symptoms resemble those seen in humans, and dogs are close to humans on the mammalian family tree. The dogs were cared for according to nationally accepted guidelines, and the tests performed were no different from those that are commonly used in human subjects. And, as in human research, dogs that had allergic reactions were immediately treated with antihistamines and recovered.

Umetsu cautions that the vaccine is not yet ready for human testing. “We still have to do additional studies to see if the vaccine causes unforeseen problems in animals,” he said. But he has great hopes for an effective food allergy treatment. His lab at Stanford is currently recruiting volunteers for a study of another peanut allergy treatment that works by a different mechanism: It rids the body of the antibody involved in allergic reactions.

“Over the next five to 10 years as we understand the causes of allergies better, we will have better recommendations and therapies that will in fact cure allergic disease,” Umetsu said.

The research was funded by grants from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, the National Institutes of Health and a gift from Howard and Susan Sosin. Umetsu’s collaborators include O.L. Frick at UCSF, S.S. Teuber at UC-Davis and B.B. Buchanan and S. Morigasaki at UC-Berkeley.
 
About Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions — Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please visit the Web site of the medical center’s Office of Communication & Public Affairs at http://mednews.stanford.edu.
 
About Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 264-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with Stanford School of Medicine, LPCH offers patients locally, regionally and nationally the full range of health-care programs and services – from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. To learn more about Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, please visit our Web site at http://www.lpch.org.