A potentially life-saving treatment for peanut allergy could be on the horizon after promising results from an Australian trial.
Four years after Murdoch’s Children’s Research Institute researchers trialed incrementally introducing a combination of peanut protein and probiotics orally to 56 allergic children, 80 per cent of the 82 per cent who gained tolerance are still able to eat peanut as part of their normal diet.
“It provides the strongest evidence yet that a cure may be possible for peanut allergy and holds important implications for attacking the modern food allergy epidemic,” an MCRI press release says.
The research, published in The Lancet, Child and Adolescent Health, is being followed up by a larger randomised trial.
If confirmed to be effective, it will lead to a paradigm shift in the way we manage food allergy, MCRI professor Mimi Tang says in an email to Healthy Food Guide.
“Rather than relying on food allergen avoidance, treatment will aim to induce tolerance, protecting against reactions without having to avoid the food.”