Peanut flour against peanut allergy

Immunotherapy: Doctors are discovering remedies for peanut allergy

31/01/2014

More and more people are suffering from a peanut allergy. About every 50th child is affected. Researchers at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, recently discovered a cure for peanut allergy. In their experimental study, they infused affected children with the smallest amounts of peanut meal to desensitize them - with success. Regardless of the severity of the peanut allergy, 80 percent of study participants could easily eat a handful of peanuts at the end of immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy against peanut allergy
Peanuts are the most common trigger for food allergies. In most cases, the respiratory system, the digestive system and the skin are affected by allergic reactions. In severe cases, peanut allergy can also affect the cardiovascular system and cause a life-threatening condition. People with peanut allergy must therefore be very careful when choosing their foods. Although many products only contain traces of peanuts, they can also trigger dangerous reactions in people with allergies. A promising therapy against the allergy did not exist so far.

However, British researchers could now have found an antidote. In the trade magazine „The Lancet“ Study Director Andrew Clark and his colleagues report on a procedure that is already used in bollard allergy sufferers. Due to the slowly increasing gift of the allergenic substance, a habituation to the allergens is to be achieved and the excessive defense reaction of the immune system prevented. Clark and his team performed immunotherapy on 99 children under the age of 16. By taking a special peanut meal, which the children received over several months in slowly increasing doses, their immune system got used to the peanuts. At first the children got only two milligrams of the flour, the last being 800 milligrams. The most common complaints were itching in the mouth, nausea and stomach pain. However, after six months, the symptoms had disappeared in 80 percent of the children, so they could even eat a handful of peanuts without any problems.

Efficacy of immunotherapy against peanut allergy must be investigated in further studies
The study aimed to determine if immunotherapy could protect against life-threatening allergic reactions if children inadvertently eat peanut-containing foods.

„Oral immunotherapy has desensitized most peanut allergy children of all severity“, the researchers write in the journal. „The quality of life improved after the treatment.“ Further studies would now have to be carried out with larger numbers of participants. The researchers also point out that their results apply only to the age group studied.

Matthew Greenhawt of the University of Michigan describes the result of the investigation as „However, it is unclear whether the immunotherapy with peanut flour one „lasting effect“ have. (Ag)