DESIGNING A MIMOTOPE-BASED VACCINE FOR PEANUT ALLERGY

Project SummaryIgE-mediated peanut allergy is one of the most serious food allergies. There is noapproved curative therapy for peanut allergy. Allergen specific immunotherapy (AIT) isthe only disease-modifying treatment for peanut allergy, but the treatment can causesevere side effects. AIT based on natural allergen extracts or recombinant allergens isable to cross-link mast cell- or basophil-bound IgE/Fc?R1complexes and containsallergen specific T-cell epitopes and thus can induce both immediate and late-phaseside effects. A new approach, B-cell epitope based vaccine contains allergen-specificpeptides, which do not have allergenic activity (ability to cross-link mast cell- or basophil-bond IgE/FC?R1complex) themselves and lack allergen-specific T cell epitopes andtherefore, is safer than vaccines that are based on natural allergen extracts orrecombinant allergens. In this study, we propose to design B-cell epitope basedvaccines that contain carefully-selected, novel specific mimotopes . In Aim 1, we willdesign, express, purify and characterize mimotope-based fusion proteins. In Aim 2, wewill perform vaccination with mimotope-based fusion proteins and test the efficacy ofthese mimotope-based vaccines in a well-established mouse model and a humanizedmouse model of peanut allergy. The overall goal of this research is to design a newmimotope-based vaccine feasible for the treatment of existing peanut allergy.