Success Towards Alleviating Peanut Allergy: The Major Allergen Ara h 2 is Silenced via RNA Interfere (RNAi)

There is evidence that the prevalence of peanut allergy is increasing worldwide. Peanut sensitivity on a standard skin prick test has increased by 55%, while allergic reactions increased by 95% in the past 10 years. Strict avoidance of peanut and peanut-ingredient is the only way to prevent an allergic reaction. However, avoidance of peanuts is very difficult because peanuts are commonly used as an adulterant in food preparation. To date, there is no cure for peanut allergy and no therapy is available to reduce the severity of peanut allergy. Current treatments only address the symptoms of an allergic reaction once it has taken place. Ara h 2 is a 17.5 kDa protein, and identified as the most offending peanut allergen (Palmer et al., 2005). Elimination of Ara h 2 from peanut would significantly reduce peanut allergenicity. In a previous study, we reported the production of several transgenic peanut plants expressing a truncated Ara h 2 transgene (Konan et al., 2004). However, upon maturity, the plants were sterile and no seed was produced, preventing the assessment of silencing Ara h 2 in transgenic peanuts. The objective of this study is to produce fertile transgenic peanut plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring an RNAi transformation vector, specifically designed to silence Ara h 2, and to evaluate the allergenic potency of transgenic peanut seeds.