Peanut and tree nut allergies affect about 3 million Americans, but there is only one approved treatment, which only addresses its severity. And despite the amount of research behind finding ways to combat or treat this often-fatal condition, patients had only a glimmer of hope.
But a major breakthrough may be on the horizon as scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) test the world’s first mRNA drug packaged in tiny nanoparticles. The tools you need to stop the progression of often life-threatening conditions.
“To our knowledge, mRNA has never been used for allergic disease,” said study co-author and UCLA professor Dr. André Nel. “We have shown that our platform can help calm his allergy to peanuts, and we believe it can do the same for other allergens, including food and pharmaceuticals and autoimmune diseases.”
Taking a cue from the COVID-19 vaccine, the team packaged mRNA into nanoparticles and delivered them to the liver to instruct specific cells to tolerate the peanut protein. The researchers paid particular attention to the liver. This is because they are home to antigen-presenting cells that are resistant to foreign substances and help train the immune system to tolerate foreign proteins rather than attack them.
This is based on a 2021 study by the team that confirmed that nanoparticles deliver protein fragments known as epitopes to the liver to reduce egg allergy in mice. In 2022, researchers discovered an epitope associated with peanut allergy.
“If you are lucky enough to choose the right epitope, there are immune mechanisms that suppress responses to all other fragments,” says Nel. “Then we can manage the entire collection of epitopes involved in disease.”
This is where mRNA came into play. In a manner similar to how mRNA vaccines encode the COVID-19 spike protein to enhance defense, the mRNA packaged within this nanoparticle encodes a specific epitope.
Through several successful trials in mice, scientists found that nanoparticle treatment greatly increased the animals’ tolerance to peanut protein.
Researchers now believe their treatment could advance to clinical trials within three years and have potential for allergy indications, as the mRNA payload can encode different types of epitopes. They are also investigating whether it can be used to treat type 1 diabetes.
The study was published in a journal ACS Nano.
Source: University of California, Los Angeles
