Annual Meeting

Plant compound shows promise for alleviating food allergies

Study uncovers new drug targets for treating other allergic disorders
Nancy D. Lamontagne
April 2, 2022

Researchers combined advanced computational methods with experimental studies to gain new insight, at the cell level, into how the plant compound formononetin might be used to treat food allergies. With nearly 10% of the world population affected by food allergies — which are sometimes life-threatening — new treatments are critically needed. 

Formononetin is found in plants and herbs such as red clover and green beans and has been shown to have anticancer properties. It is a phytoestrogen, meaning that it has a structure similar to the hormone estrogen and can bind to the body’s estrogen receptors. 

Ibrahim Musa, New York Medical College
This protein–protein interactions network was constructed by mapping potential targets in food allergy, IgE and mast cell diseases to the Strings database. The size of the node from large to small is proportional to its degree value in the network. The circles represent the therapeutic targets, and the purple lines represent the interaction between the nodes.

“Our findings show that formononetin is a particularly good therapeutic candidate for treating food allergies,” said Ibrahim Musa, a doctoral candidate in pathology, microbiology and immunology at New York Medical College. “Our research also revealed new mechanisms and targets that can be utilized to design future drugs for treating food allergies and other allergic disorders or to prevent severe anaphylaxis seen in allergic diseases.” 

Musa will present the new research at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting during the Experimental Biology (EB) 2022 meeting, to be held April 2–5 in Philadelphia. 

Food allergies occur when the immune system treats a food or something in a food as a threat. This causes the immune system to produce immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies that react to the food and can cause allergy symptoms such as hives, asthma, itching, trouble breathing or diarrhea. 

In previous studies, the researchers identified formononetin as a potential therapeutic for allergies because it decreased IgE production. To find out more, the researchers turned to an approach known as systems pharmacology. This involved using data from publicly available databases to identify gene and protein targets regulated in food allergy and mast cells diseases. Mast cells also play an important role in IgE-mediated allergic diseases. 

Once they identified gene and protein targets, the researchers validated them using cultured cell lines that are commonly used in allergy studies. These cell experiments showed that formononetin did influence the expression of gene and protein targets identified using systems pharmacology. 

“Our study demonstrates that system pharmacology can be used to predict drug/ compound–target interaction,” said Musa. “What’s more, the mechanism of action identified for formononetin is also important for other allergic diseases such as allergic asthma and hay fever. This suggests that formononetin or other therapeutic candidates that decrease IgE production could be useful for treating these diseases.” 

The researchers have developed a mouse model of peanut allergy that they plan to use to study formononetin and identify potential side effects. 

Ibrahim Musa will present this research from 12:30–1:45 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in Exhibit/Poster Hall A-B, Pennsylvania Convention Center (Poster Board Number A235) (abstract). 

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
Nancy D. Lamontagne

Nancy D. Lamontagne is a science writer and editor at Creative Science Writing based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Science

Science highlights or most popular articles

Engineering the future with synthetic biology
ASBMB Annual Meeting

Engineering the future with synthetic biology

March 31, 2025

Learn about the ASBMB 2025 symposium on synthetic biology, featuring applications to better human and environmental health.

Scientists find bacterial ‘Achilles’ heel’ to combat antibiotic resistance
Webinar

Scientists find bacterial ‘Achilles’ heel’ to combat antibiotic resistance

March 28, 2025

Alejandro Vila, an ASBMB Breakthroughs speaker, discussed his work on metallo-β-lactamase enzymes and their dependence on zinc.

Host vs. pathogen and the molecular arms race
ASBMB Annual Meeting

Host vs. pathogen and the molecular arms race

March 28, 2025

Learn about the ASBMB 2025 symposium on host–pathogen interactions, to be held Sunday, April 13 at 1:50 p.m.

Richard Silverman to speak at ASBMB 2025
ASBMB Annual Meeting

Richard Silverman to speak at ASBMB 2025

March 27, 2025

Richard Silverman and Melissa Moore are the featured speakers at the ASBMB annual meeting to be held April 12-15 in Chicago.

From the Journals: JBC
Journal News

From the Journals: JBC

March 25, 2025

How cells recover from stress. Cancer cells need cysteine to proliferate. Method to make small membrane proteins. Read about papers on these topics recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

ASBMB names 2025 JBC/Tabor Award winners
Award

ASBMB names 2025 JBC/Tabor Award winners

March 24, 2025

The six awardees are first authors of outstanding papers published in 2024 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.