Examining the Effect of Schistosoma mansoni on the Development of Peanut Allergy using a Periplaneta americana Model

Overview

Peanut allergy is one of the most common food allergies in the world; however, despite the substantial amount of research conducted on the topic, the root cause of this disease remains unknown. Prior research has established that Ara-h-1, a major peanut antigen, is cross-reactive with the highly immunogenic proteins IPSE/a-1 and k-5, secreted by the eggs of the parasitic blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni. Here, we propose that this cross-reactivity contributes to the development of some peanut allergy cases. We investigated a positive correlation between S. mansoni and peanut allergy using Periplaneta americana as our model organism, since these cockroaches are capable of mounting a humoral immune response comparable to that of humans. This research consists of two phases: a behavioral study followed by a study to evaluate its findings at a molecular level. After conducting the behavioral study, we established that cockroaches injected with a soluble S. mansoni egg antigen exhibited physical symptoms of an allergic reaction after consuming peanuts, likely due to the aforementioned cross-reactivity. This study demonstrated a novel association between a parasitic worm and food allergy in vivo. We are currently in the process of conducting a Western Blot with antibody-like molecules collected from cockroaches involved in the behavioral study. The results of our research could potentially change the scientific community’s views on peanut allergy, as well as other food allergies, and lead to new lines of inquiry with the hope of finding a cure. FluVaxAI: A Novel AI Inspired Regional Flu Vaccine Formulation Cameron Sharma Mills E. Godwin High School, Richmond, VA Influenza virus causes an estimated 9.0-35.6 million severe illnesses and 850,000 deaths worldwide annually. Aided by its error-prone, open-ended RNA genome, the virus mutates rampantly to evade the host immune system. The annual quadrivalent flu vaccine has two components each of Type A and Type Blineages. Type A strains cause majority of the flu related morbidity and mortality because they have zoonotic hosts. WHO/ CDC announce a single global flu vaccine annually. This one-vaccine-fits-all-worldwide model has limited effectiveness (mean: 40%, range: 10%-60%). In this experiment, the global and regional vaccines were the levels of independent variable. Efficacy of the vaccine was the dependent variable. It was hypothesized that the vaccines tailored to the regions around the globe would be more effective. FluVaxAI presented here is a novel methodology for computing antiviral vaccines. Nucleotide and protein sequences of the hemagglutinin segments of the influenza virus were downloaded from the IVR and GISRIS data repositories. Mutations in individual amino acids in the segments were tracked over the study period of 2005 to 2020. A long short-term memory model was fitted to the mutational history of the amino acids to project their future course. The vaccines were then assembled from the resulting amino acids. The process was repeated for each region. The computed regional vaccines were distinct and showed efficacy in their respective regions, proving the hypothesis. The results for Africa and Asia need further investigation. The future work could include refinement of the model and field testing. There were no safety issues.

Competition history

• JSHS 2022 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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