Distinct baseline functional profiles of peanut-reactive T cells associate with sustained unresponsiveness after oral immunotherapy

Abstract Background Peanut allergies continuously present urging public health challenges. Oral immunotherapy (OIT) is an important treatment option for peanut allergies, but its effectiveness varies, in terms of inducing desensitization (DS) or achieving long-term sustained unresponsiveness (SU). Identifying biomarkers to predict OIT outcomes is thus of great translational interests. Methods We thoroughly analyzed data from the POISED trial and our in-house OPIA trial, with a particular focus on the peanut-reactive T cells, in an attempt to identify potential biomarkers at baseline before OIT to distinguish DS and SU outcomes. Results In both the POISED trial and OPIA trial, we found that functional profiles of peanut-reactive T cells at baseline before OIT, such as their type II T helper (Th2) cell cytokine productions, including IL-4, were associated with the DS versus SU outcomes after OIT cessation. Conclusions Baseline peanut-reactive T cell functional profiles might provide new possibilities for biomarker discovery to predict peanut allergy OIT outcomes.