# Characterizing and optimizing IgE and IgG4 microarray peptide assays for Ara h 2

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2022 · $77,750

## Abstract

Project Summary:
Peanut allergy is recognized as one of the most severe food allergies due to its prevalence,
persistence, and the potential severity. Peanut allergy reactions vary from mild to severe, ranging
from acute hives, severe angioedema, swelling of the face, bronchospasm, anaphylaxis, to even
death. The US annual healthcare cost of managing peanut allergy is estimated to be several
billion dollars. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop improved diagnostics. Among the 17
known PN allergens, the highly homologous 2S albumins, Ara h 2 and Ara h 6, are the most
potent for eliciting IgE-mediated mast cell activation and measurement of specific IgE to either
Ara h 2 or Ara h 6 correlates best with clinically relevant PN allergy. Peptide microarrays have
been in use for a decade and are particularly useful for screening peptides and qualitative analysis
of immunoglobulin binding. We hypothesize that these peptide microarrays have the potential to
be more quantitative and become important diagnostics but there are important gaps in
knowledge in regards to the size of the peptides assayed, how samples are handled, sensitivity,
reproducibility and the dynamic range of the assays. We will use samples from a well
characterized clinical trial of oral immunotherapy to test the following hypotheses: 1) normalizing
sera based on PN-sIgE (or IgG4) or Ara h 2-sIgE (or IgG4) prior to assay will give more accurate
measure of quantitative binding to peptides that may be seen if sera are assayed at a fixed dilution
and 2) microarray assays are more sensitive than either Bt-ELISA or ImmunoCap®, but have a
more restricted dynamic range. The outcome of these studies will be an enhanced understanding
of the use of microarrays so that this important tool can be applied to a variety of allergic
conditions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10447170
- **Project number:** 5R03AI164349-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHEN C DRESKIN
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $77,750
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-07-07 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10447170

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10447170, Characterizing and optimizing IgE and IgG4 microarray peptide assays for Ara h 2 (5R03AI164349-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10447170. Licensed CC0.

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