Peanut allergy
Peanut allergy could be described as the body’s "friendly fire". The immune system is a bit like a miniature army, defending your body against invading bacteria, viruses and parasites. It has battalions of specialised cells patrolling the body, seeking out infection. These cells use batteries of chemicals, to communicate with each other and to kill off invaders. Peanut allergy starts without your even knowing it, when your immune system interprets a component of peanuts as a sign of enemy invasion. The next time you eat a peanut, the immune system leaps into action, mobilising all its forces, sometimes with fatal results. The process is called anaphylaxis: - Anaphylaxis takes place in specialised cells called mast cells.
- Inside, the cell is crammed with a cocktail of chemicals including histamine
- The antenna-like molecules on the surface are immunoglobin E (IgE)
- Proteins from a peanut bind to the IgE
- This causes the release of histamine, which in turn causes swelling, sneezing, vomiting, spasm of the lungs, fall in blood pressure and sometimes, tragically, even death.
Did you know …?
Taxonomically speaking, peanuts are not nuts. They are legumes. Peanuts grow underground. They are most closely related to peas, beans and lentils and not at all closely related to other nuts, which grow on trees. This could matter to peanut allergy sufferers: closely related species are more likely to contain similar proteins. It also matters to biologists, who devote a lot of time and effort to classifying living things. The study of classification, or taxonomy, can sometimes give an insight into the degree of evolutionary relationship. This in turn can help answer some of the biggest evolutionary questions of our time, such as solving some of the mysteries of the dinosaurs. Did you know … ?
The peanut plant is a native of South America which is now grown in five continents.
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