Scientists develop vaccine strategy for peanut allergy

Researchers believe that they may be close to developing a new strategy to combat anaphylactic allergies-such as the increasingly common allergy to peanuts-in which doctors induce tolerance using an oral formulation containing a gene from the offending allergen.

Many established allergies have been traditionally treated by immunotherapy, in which subcutaneous injections of progressively increasing doses of purified allergen are given; a strategy that is effective only in some circumstances. Dr Kam Leong, professor of biomedical engineering at …