# B cell repertoires and function in food allergen multi-OIT

> **NIH NIH U19** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $240,027

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Food allergy is increasingly prevalent in the United States, and approximately one-third of patients have 
reactivity to multiple foods. There is an unmet clinical need to treat multi-food allergy in a timely and efficacious 
manner, but the mechanistic factors that should guide selection of an optimal treatment strategy are unclear. 
This project aims to obtain fundamental new understanding of human B cell and immunoglobulin (Ig) 
responses in patients allergic to multiple foods, and to analyze the B cell alterations induced by multi-allergen 
oral immunotherapy (multi-OIT) alone or in combination with biologics targeting IgE or the IL-4/IL-13 receptor 
component IL-4Rα. We will use flow cytometry isolation of allergen-specific B cells, focusing on cells specific 
for milk, peanut or cashew allergens, paired with DNA deep sequencing of immunoglobulin (Ig) gene 
rearrangements, to characterize pathogenic B cell populations in allergic patients, and to determine what 
changes in clonal populations, antibody isotype expression, antibody somatic mutation, and affinity are induced 
in these B cell populations during successful multi-OIT treatment. We will evaluate whether there are B cell 
repertoire features, either prior to multi-OIT, or during multi-OIT, that predict participants’ responses and could 
be used to guide therapy. The studies will be performed on specimens from well-characterized multi-allergic 
participants in the pilot, phase 2 multi-OIT clinical trial proposed in Project 1, as well as from appropriate 
atopic and healthy control subjects. We will evaluate and compare the molecular features of B cells and 
antibodies specific for milk, peanut and cashew allergens, and their alterations in response to multi-OIT, within 
the same people. In a subset of participants, we will study B cells in both blood and GI biopsy specimens, to 
determine to what extent peripheral blood B cell monitoring accurately reflects the allergic disease state in the 
GI tract of patients, and the changes induced by multi-OIT. Importantly, we will also analyze the effects of 
monoclonal antibody therapies targeting IgE or IL-4Rα during multi-OIT, to determine the extent to which these 
biologic therapies affect the nature and time course of B cell changes induced by multi-OIT. We will additionally
perform long-term follow up studies of B cells in participants in our POISED and MAPX OIT trials.
 The B cell data from this Project will be combined and analyzed together with clinical data and experimental 
data from T cells and basophils from Projects 1, 3 and 4, and Core B, in collaboration with the Data Analysis 
Core C, to enable a comprehensive evaluation of immunological phenotypes associated with multi-food 
allergic disease, and with successful and durable therapeutic responses to multi-OIT.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10553111
- **Project number:** 5U19AI104209-10
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Scott Dexter Boyd
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $240,027
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-07-01 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10553111

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10553111, B cell repertoires and function in food allergen multi-OIT (5U19AI104209-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10553111. Licensed CC0.

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