New Test Evaluates Severity of Peanut Allergy
Researchers from the University of Connecticut are developing a new peanut allergy test to determine a patient’s sensitivity to allergic reaction through a few drops of blood, according to a recent study.
“A patient who has a serious allergy and gets exposed to an allergen protein [such as immunoglobin E (IgE)] will form antibodies in their body that should stay there for awhile,” said James Rusling, PhD, a professor at the University of Connecticut who specializes in detecting protein biomarkers.1
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“Our theory is that the level of those antibodies can be used to predict how severe a patient’s allergy is at any one point in time,” he said. 1
For the study, researchers tested 3 elements of the most potent peanut allergen: carbohydrate residue, a protein peptide, and a positive control. 1,2
After injecting the patient’s blood serum, the IgE antibodies were pulled down by the allergens and bound. The researchers were then able to measure the patient’s allergic reaction through the quantity of antibodies. 1
Researchers attached magnetic beads to the allergen samples in order to detect concentrations of antibodies as low as 0.5-1 pg/ml throught the captured IgEs amplification. 1,2
Moving forward, researchers would like to use 5 different peptides and carbohydrate samples to observe how IgEs bind to them, and further determine a patient’s specific allergen susceptibility. 1
The complete study is published in the November issue of Analyst.
-Michelle Canales Butcher
References:
1. UConn Today. New peanut allergy test goes beyond scratching the surface. February 26, 2015. http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2015/02/working-toward-a-more-advanced-peanut-allergy-test/. Accessed March 5, 2015.
2. Joshi AA, Peczuh MW, Kumar CV, Rusling JF. Ultrasensitive carbohydrate-peptide SPR imaging microarray for diagnosing IgE mediated peanut allergy. NEJM. 2014 November [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1039/C4AN01544D.