Skin Exposure May Contribute to Early Risk for Food Allergies
Skin exposure may contribute to early sensitization, according to study led by Mount Sinai researchers.
Many children may become allergic to peanuts before they first eat them, and skin exposure may contribute to early sensitization, according to a study in mice led by Mount Sinai researchers and published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Early in the process of developing an allergy, skin exposure to food allergens contributes to “sensitization”, which means the immune system in the skin becomes reactive to proteins in foods such as peanuts.
The question of how peanut allergies start is an important one, given the extremity of some reactions, the prevalence (1 to 2 percent of the population), and because such allergies tend to be lifelong.
Past studies have shown that children may first become allergic when exposed to peanut proteins through breast milk or in house dust, but this current study adds skin exposure to the list of culprits that make a child allergic by the first time they taste a peanut. The results also identify elements of the human immune system in the skin as targets for future treatments or preventive efforts.
“The peanut protein responsible for most allergic reactions in humans is seen as foreign or dangerous by the immune system of the skin,” said Cecilia Berin, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Blocking those immune pathways activated in the skin prevented the development of peanut allergy in the mice, and our next step will be to confirm this in humans.”
In a collaboration among the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Immunology Institute, and Tisch Cancer Institute at The Mount Sinai Hospital, researchers exposed mice to peanut protein extract on the skin and observed that repeated topical exposure to peanut allergens led to sensitization and a severe, whole-body allergic reaction upon a second exposure. The data found that peanuts are allergenic due to inherent components the lead to a more robust immune response. These findings suggest that skin exposure to food allergens contributes to sensitization to foods in early life.
“This research helps us to understand why peanut, out of the many foods in our diet, is such a common cause of food allergy,” said Berin. “If we identify how the immune system recognizes peanut as a danger, we may eventually learn how to block that pathway and prevent the food allergy altogether.”
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.
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