Testing Food for Oral Immunotherapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
ASSESSING THE ALLERGENICITY OF CRUSTACEAN SHELLFISH AND PEANUT FOOD PREPARATION FOR USE IN ORAL IMMUNOTHERAPY STUDIES
IRAS ID
213925
Contact name
Syed Hasan Arshad
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Food allergic reactions are common, affecting 4-6% of the population (approximately 3 million patients in the UK). Nuts and crustacean shellfish cause persistent allergy and may cause life threatening reactions. Food allergy is the most common cause of anaphylaxis presenting to emergency departments. As no specific treatment is available, avoidance is the only advice, which is not always possible. This means a risk of an allergic reaction and quality of life is severely affected. Oral allergen immunotherapy (OIT) with food is being investigated as a long term solution, avoiding the need for life long avoidance and the need for adrenaline auto-injectors. It has gained support and evidence of efficacy in egg, milk and peanut allergy in children. However, long term tolerance occurs in only a minority. OIT has not been tried in adults whose tendency is more persistent forms of allergy. We need more information on the characteristics of allergens in seafoods, particularly crustacean shellfish and nuts and how these allergens react to the sera of food allergic patients.
Prior to OIT trials, we need to ensure that all relevant allergen epitopes are present in our preparations and reactive to sera from those with appropriate food allergy. We propose to study our preparation for prawn and peanut OIT. We will focus on testing for the presence of the relevant allergenic proteins.
We will recruit 120 adults (50 with prawn allergy and 50 with peanut allergy), and 20 control subjects who have no evidence of prawn and peanut allergy. A blood sample of up to 30ml will be obtained. Samples will be processed and stored at -80C until further analyses. The studies will include measurement of specific igE to whole protein and known recombinant proteins, sodium dodecylsulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Western blotting and basophil histamine release.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/2244
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion