# Supramolecular peptide immunotherapies for peanut allergy

> **NIH NIH R21** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $237,579

## Abstract

Peanut allergy is the leading cause of allergy-related deaths in children and is primarily managed
through strict allergen avoidance, which increases anxiety and lowers quality of life. Among current
clinical or investigational treatments, peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) and sublingual immunotherapy
(SLIT) have shown efficacy, but both strategies require a lifetime of daily management, impacting
patient compliance and cost. Further, SLIT regimens have exhibited comparably better safety profiles
than OIT in clinical trials, but they are less effective at inducing allergen desensitization. Conversely,
OIT has exhibited greater efficacy but carries a greater risk of adverse effects, including anaphylaxis.
The therapeutic efficacy of both OIT and SLIT is associated with a shift in T-cell phenotype from Th2 to
Th1 and a shift in antibody isotype from IgE to IgG and IgA, although the relative contributions of these
immunological changes have not been fully elucidated. Ideally, the sublingual administration of carefully
chosen peptide B-cell epitopes from allergens could improve the safety profile of allergy
immunotherapies, but raising antibody responses against peptide epitopes sublingually has proven a
significant challenge. This project seeks to exploit a recently designed platform for sublingual
immunization based on supramolecular peptide-polymer nanomaterials, which have been shown very
recently to raise strong IgG responses when delivered sublingually either in tablet form or in liquid
formulations. These materials will be designed such that rationally selected linear B-cell epitopes and
sublingual delivery combine to produce a novel therapy capable of raising protective antibody
responses against selected epitopes in peanut antigens, while minimizing risks of anaphylaxis. After
selecting linear B cell epitopes from major peanut allergens maximizing sublingual immunogenicity and
minimizing reactogenicity in vitro, multi-epitope nanomaterial vaccines will be investigated in a mouse
model of allergen desensitization and peanut challenge. The project capitalizes on a multi-disciplinary
collaboration between research groups with expertise in immune engineering and biomaterials
(research group of Joel Collier in the Department of Biomedical Engineering) and allergy, vaccination,
and adjuvants (research group of Herman Staats in the Department of Pathology). At the conclusion of
this two-year high risk/high reward R21 project, we expect to have demonstrated a critical proof-of-
concept establishing supramolecular sublingual peptide nanomaterials as a potential immunotherapy
for peanut allergy desensitization that can be comprehensively investigated in follow-on work.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10416075
- **Project number:** 5R21AI164740-02
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Joel H Collier
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $237,579
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-06-02 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10416075

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10416075, Supramolecular peptide immunotherapies for peanut allergy (5R21AI164740-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10416075. Licensed CC0.

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