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Anti-IgE
Anti-IgE is a medication currently approved for the treatment of severe asthma that appears to help people with peanut allergy avoid life-threatening reactions. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at people allergic to peanuts and found that treatment with the medicine raised the average amount of peanut it took to trigger an allergic reaction from approximately one half of a peanut to nearly nine peanuts.
IgE is an antibody with one end that binds to the surface of a specialized cell called a mast cell and another end that binds to a specific allergen. When IgE bound to a mast cell comes into contact with the appropriate allergen, it triggers an allergic response. The anti-IgE medication tested in the study is a genetically engineered IgE antibody that is administered by injection. It works by binding to IgE at the site where the antibody normally binds to a mast cell, blocking that action and thereby decreasing the likelihood of an allergic reaction. If further studies confirm this result and the treatment is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, peanut allergy sufferers who take the drug still won't be able to eat peanuts. But the medication might protect them from severe reactions to the amount of peanut encountered in most accidental exposures.
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