The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says 42 is the answer. But what is the question?
For Professor Mohamed Shamji, it’s all about finding a lifelong cure for peanut allergies.
Peanut allergies are widespread, increasing in prevalence and potentially deadly. Until now, the focus has been on avoidance; however, not only is this an unreliable strategy – between seven and 14 per cent of allergic individuals are accidentally exposed to peanuts every year – the effect on patients’ mental health can be terrible.
“You can’t underestimate the impact on people’s quality of life and the anxiety it causes, particularly for parents of children with the allergy,” says Professor Mohamed Shamji, whose team of researchers at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute are working on the creation of what could be a revolutionary vaccine. “The goal of our research is to desensitise patients to the allergen, so that exposure doesn’t elicit such a strong reaction, while also introducing immunological tolerance.”
The first phase of clinical trials on the vaccine, developed in collaboration with industry partner Allergy Therapeutics, has been encouraging, demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the technology that Shamji describes as “state-of-the-art”. Skin-prick tests using the peanut allergen protein encapsulated within a “highly attenuated and very safe” virus-like particle showed that reactivity in patients was flat, while the control yielded the normal expected immune response.
The goal of our research is to desensitise patients to the allergen, so that exposure doesn’t elicit such a strong reaction, while also introducing immunological tolerance.
For Professor Shamji, the research ushers in a new way of thinking about serious allergies. “The problem with trying to use traditional immunotherapy to treat a peanut allergy is that whether you administer it over 12 weeks or three years, after you stop, the benefits only last for four weeks,” he explains. “Here, our aim is to reset the immune system so that individuals can remain symptom-free for the rest of their lives.” If successful, the same principle could be translated for other aggressive intolerances, such as asthma-linked cat allergies. As Professor Shamji says: “Whatever the nature of the allergy, prevention is always better than cure.
Professor Mohamed Shamji is Professor of Immunology and Allergy at the National Heart and Lung Institute in the Faculty of Medicine.