Try This New Therapy To Cure Peanut Allergy In Kids

Australian researchers made a successful breakthrough by coming up with an immune-based therapy which is the newest treatment for saving peanut reactions in children for up to four years. Tang, an immunologist and allergist decided to come up with a cure which will not eliminate the allergen from the diet, but find a way to get the immune system adapted to the allergen. Murdoch Children's Research Institute was where a small clinical trial took place which gave out positive results, by curing peanut allergic reactions in two-thirds of the participants and what's more, it lasted for up to four years.

"These children had been eating peanut freely in their diet without having to follow any particular program of peanut intake in the years after treatment was completed," says the lead researcher, Prof Mimi Tang.

Where food allergies are not a very uncommon phenomenon, peanut reaction leads to anaphylaxis, a deadly food reaction which is one of the commonest causes of death due to food allergies.

Tang also said that this technique of getting the immune system adaptable to the probiotic creates a need for the system to accept the allergen.

The experiment was conducted over a period of 18 months, where 48 random children were given either a probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus, combined with limited quantities of peanut protein or a placebo once daily. At the end of which, it was found that 82% of the kids who were given the probiotic combination were able to have peanuts without a reaction and only 4% who received placebo adapted to peanuts.

Tang revealed that the results were thrilling and life-changing for the kids as this experiment helped majority of the kids to continue having peanuts safely even after four years.

"The way I see it is that we had children who came into the study allergic to peanuts, having to avoid peanuts in their diet, being very vigilant around that, carrying a lot of anxiety with that and, at the end of treatment and even four years later, many of these children who had benefited from our probiotic peanut therapy could now live like a child who didn't have peanut allergy."

Lancet Child & Adolescent Health published these results. Further, if larger clinical studies approve of this, it is being expected that this treatment can have an impact on reducing food allergies in kids.

"This is a major step forward in identifying an effective treatment to address the food allergy problem in western societies," Tang