“If we understand more about how IL-33 works, we can find the best ways to modify the pathway and hopefully stop food allergies,” says Steven F. Ziegler, PhD, BRI’s director of Academic Affairs and the Immunology Research Program.

Dr. Ziegler and co-investigator Karen Cerosaletti, PhD, BRI research associate member and manager of the Genotyping Core, recently received a $2.9 million grant to expand this research. Collaborators will include Virginia Mason, Stanford University Medical School and Asthma Inc.

“By studying blood samples of people with peanut allergies and building model systems of food allergic responses, we’ve discovered that IL-33 is critically important throughout the development of peanut allergies and perhaps all food allergies,” says Dr. Ziegler. “It’s very exciting that currently therapies are being developed to target IL-33 in other allergic diseases.”

“We are almost full circle in putting together the elements that explain how allergies occur,” says Dr. Ziegler. He previously identified TSLP as a new factor triggering the onset and progression of asthma and allergies.

Using model systems, Dr. Ziegler tested these proteins throughout the allergic immune response and found that IL-33 is critically important for both sensitization to allergen in the skin, as well as in the response following oral consumption. Research studies support the theory that allergies in children can develop following sensitization through the skin, leading to possible anaphylactic responses after oral consumption.

“Our new grant will allow us to replicate and expand our investigation of IL-33 and other proteins and genes in larger groups of people with food allergies, through the BRI biorepositories and research participants at Stanford, Virginia Mason and Asthma Inc.,” says Dr. Cerosaletti.

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