Successful treatment of peanut allergy

February 20, 11:58 AMScience News ExaminerMeg Marquardt

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Baseball stadiums host “peanut-free nights” so families can attend without fear.  Airlines get blasted for serving peanuts during flights.  My mother once told me a story about a boy at her school.  His peanut allergy was so severe that he had to eat lunch on his own.  Just being near another child’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich was too close for comfort.  So he ate lunch with only one other friend whose parents were careful to keep his lunch peanut-free as well. 

These stories are repeated all over the country (and world) as those with peanut allergies continue to struggle with quality of life in a place that is in love with peanuts (so much so that the FDA reported difficulties in trying to control the recent salmonella outbreak because people simply would not stop buying peanut butter even if there was a chance it was tainted).  Peanut allergies, which cause reactions that range from mild breathing problems to fatalities, are arguably the most debilitating of allergies.

But UK scientists based out of Cambridge’s Addenbrooke's Hospital, may have found a way to help those suffering from peanut allergies.  They think they have found a successful treatment, a desensitizing therapy that builds up a tolerance to peanuts.  It was an extremely small study (only four children), so the researchers warn that larger and more long-term studies will be needed.  But if nothing else, it is a step in the right direction.

Unlike similar experiments that used peanut injections failed in the '90s, this study used peanut flour.  “The Cambridge team started the children on tiny 5mg daily doses of peanut flour before they trained their bodies up to cope regularly with 800mg - the equivalent to five whole peanuts.” [BBC]  This is not a new technique; desensitization has been effective in the past with bee sting allergies and pollen-based allergies, but this is the first success with a food allergy.

Again, this is an extremely small study, so at the moment all that has been really gained in hope.  Time will tell if the UK team’s new larger and longer studies produce the same encouraging results.  "It's not a permanent cure,” said Dr. Andy Clark, the leading author on the study,” but as long as they go on taking a daily dose they should maintain their tolerance." [BBC]