Recent advances in the diagnosis and therapy of peanut allergy

Abstract

Peanut allergy is a life-threatening, IgE-mediated allergic disease. In developed countries, the prevalence rate of peanut allergy in school-aged children is reported to be in excess of 1% and continues to rise, representing a major public health concern. Peanut allergy is diagnosed on the basis of a relevant clinical history combined with results of skin-prick testing and/or peanut-specific IgE levels. A double-blind placebo-controlled oral food challenge is the gold standard for diagnosis. Currently, there is no approved treatment or disease-modifying therapy for peanut allergy. This review discusses recent advances in molecular diagnostic techniques for peanut allergy and highlights advances in peanut allergy therapeutics, discussing allergen-specific and allergen-nonspecific treatments that are currently in Phase I/II clinical trials.

Keywords::

• allergen-nonspecific
• allergen-specific
• allergy
• component resolved
• diagnosis
• diagnostics
• IgE-mediated
• immunotherapy
• peanut
• treatment

Financial & competing interests disclosure

AW Burks is on the boards of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network; is on the Medical Advisory Board for the Food Allergy Initiative; is a study section member for the NIH Hypersensitivity, Autoimmunity and Immune-Mediated section; and serves on Merck’s US Allergy Immunotherapy Allergist Advisory Board. He also serves as a consultant for Dow AgroSciences, Dynavax Technologies Corp, ExploraMed Development, LLC, Genalyte, Hycor Biomedical, Merck, Nordic Biotech Advisors ApS and PBN Nutritionals. He is a minority stockholder of Allertein, a speaker for Mylan Specialty and has received royalties from UpToDate. AW Burks holds grants from the NIH and Wallace Research Foundation. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

FAHF-2: Food Allergy Herbal Formula 2.