Researchers inch closer to peanut allergy cure

Treatment has 80% success rate after four years

THIS IS A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN IDENTIFYING AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT TO ADDRESS THE FOOD ALLERGY PROBLEM.

A major breakthrough in allergy treatment shows that a permanent cure for peanut allergy might be close. Eighty-two per cent of children with peanut allergies who underwent the clinical trial suddenly found themselves able to tolerate the killer legume.

Prof. Mimi Tang of Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Australia says she is “very excited about the results,” which would allow allergic kids to consume peanuts without fear of death. Effects from the treatment lasted for years from the original study — 80 per cent were still eating peanuts four years later.

"This is a major step forward in identifying an effective treatment to address the food allergy problem in Western societies,” Tang said in a news release.

Peanut allergies have risen dramatically in recent decades, and the anaphylactic shock that comes with them is extremely deadly. Researchers from AllerGen NCE Inc. estimate that one in thirteen Canadians have a food allergy, and 1.93 per cent — over 700,000 — have a serious peanut allergy.

Tang’s trial gave children the probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, along with peanuts in increasing amounts every day for 18 months, to build up a tolerance. She also ran a placebo trial, in which only four per cent of kids were tolerant to peanuts after the trial.

When Tang followed up four years later, she found that the majority of kids who completed the study had been freely eating peanuts without a care in the world. Over half were eating “moderate to large” amounts.

“The importance of this finding is that these children were able to eat peanuts, like children who don’t have peanut allergy, and still maintain their tolerant state, protected against reactions to peanut,” she said. Now, Tang is looking at whether the effects of the treatment improved kids’ quality of life.