Future mRNA vaccines may prevent food and seasonal allergies
Early research from Penn Medicine finds a new mRNA vaccine stops allergens from causing immune reactions and life-threatening inflammation, with promise for future treatment for a variety of seasonal and food allergies.
2 min. read
A new mRNA vaccine has stopped allergens from causing dangerous immune reactions and life-threatening inflammation in mice, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s. The vaccine may one day be tested for tailoring to a variety of seasonal and food allergies. The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
“This is a potential breakthrough for millions of people worldwide who suffer from life-threatening allergies,” says Nobel laureate Drew Weissman, the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research at Penn Medicine and co-lead of the study.
Weissman, along with Jilian Melamed, an assistant professor of infectious diseases, Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh,an assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and others at Cincinnati Children’s modeled this new vaccine on the design of the COVID-19 mRNA lipid nanoparticle (LNP) vaccines.
This time, however, scientists tweaked the mRNA to instruct cells to produce proteins that resemble certain allergens. By presenting these proteins in a controlled way, the vaccine didn’t cause allergic reactions but did instruct the immune system to respond more appropriately in the future. And, when mice were later exposed to the respective allergens, the vaccines worked.
“People with food allergies that can cause anaphylactic shock are rightfully fearful in social situations, eating out in public, sharing food, and engaging in other fun activities where there are food and allergens around,” says Weissman. “Allowing people to partake in foods they were never able to eat would be incredibly rewarding, but I’ll even be happy if we can one day introduce a vaccine that allows parents to breathe just a little easier when sending their kids to class birthday parties.”
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
