Allergy Therapeutics publishes encouraging new data for peanut allergy vaccine candidate in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology - Seite 2

In this study mice were immunised with one of three vaccines containing either a mixture of allergens found in whole extract of roasted peanut or with just one single, purified peanut allergen (“Ara h 1” or “Ara h 2”). Regardless of which vaccine was used, immunisation strongly reduced systemic and local allergic symptoms in vaccinated subjects and protected against anaphylaxis upon subsequent challenge with a whole peanut allergen mixture. The fact that one injection against a single allergen was sufficient to induce protection against a whole peanut allergen mixture has never been described before and is described in the JACI paper as “striking and could be applied in different relevant allergies”. In addition, the vaccine proved to be hypo-allergenic as previously described⁵, which in peanut allergy is a vital characteristic to avoid anaphylactic reactions upon dosing and to increase compliance.

Allergy Therapeutics’ wholly-owned, subcutaneous, recombinant vaccine candidate, uses a formulation incorporating novel VLP-based technology, which enhances the body’s immune response by making the peanut allergen resemble an invading virus. The engineered, plant-based cucumber mosaic virus (CuMV) used in the vaccine is not able to replicate or to infect humans and so provides a platform to induce protective antibodies in a way more akin to traditional vaccination rather than current allergen-specific immunotherapy approaches such as desensitisation via transdermal patches or oral administration.

Professor Martin F. Bachmann, study investigator from The University of Bern, Switzerland and The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, UK, said: “The impact of peanut allergy on patients, their families and health systems is significant with prevalence on the rise. While work to develop peanut allergy immunotherapies has been the focus of researchers’ attention for some time, these potential immunotherapies often require repeated and long-lasting exposure transdermally or orally, which can limit patient adherence and have been associated with dangerous systemic allergic reactions. The availability of a safe and effective short-course vaccine that provides long-term protection and induces a long-lasting protective immune response remains the ultimate goal for researchers in this field. This study indicates a paradigm shift by addressing peanut allergy via a vaccination concept instead of classic desensitisation and provides a strong proof of concept for such a vaccine. The important next step will be to confirm the effects seen here in patient trials.”