A promising peanut trial offers hope to life-threatening children with allergy | Imperial News



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A bag of peanuts




Boiled peanuts could be a safe and effective treatment for children with potentially fatal peanut allergy.

The results come from a small clinical trial in which 47 children received a new oral immunotherapy with boiled peanuts in order to desensitize their immune system to peanut.

These results show that we can potentially "teach" the immune system of these children to tolerate peanuts, using a cheap and potentially cost-effective treatment. Dr. Paul Turner Author of the study

The research, presented at the 2019 AAAAI meeting in San Francisco this week by researchers from Imperial College London, showed that boiled walnut immunotherapy was safe and effective, being given that existing treatments were being evaluated, families.

Dr. Paul Turner, Clinician-scientist in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at the Imperial, said: "It's impossible to determine how a child responds to exposure to a substance to which he is allergic and he can be reached with anaphylaxis. These findings are very promising and show that we can potentially "teach" the immune system of these children to tolerate peanuts, using an inexpensive and potentially cost-effective treatment. "

In the United Kingdom, peanut allergy affects up to one child in 30; allergic symptoms are triggered by exposure to milligrams of allergens. In most cases, the allergic reaction could be anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that can be life-threatening, leading to breathing difficulties.

Train the immune system

As part of the trial, the researchers recruited 47 peanut allergic children and randomized them to receive either standard care (avoidance of food) or boiled peanut immunotherapy.

They found that all patients who had completed boiled nut therapy for one year were able to tolerate eating 6-8 peanuts without significant symptoms. No patient in the standard care group has developed an allergy during the same time period.

The current peanut allergy treatment protocols involve the use of minute amounts of carefully prepared peanut flour, the implementation of which costs thousands of pounds and can therefore not to be made available on the NHS.

Cheaper option

According to the researchers, their boiled peanut treatment would be cheaper. However, they point to the potential danger of parents trying to self-treat children exposed to boiled peanuts, noting that 10 patients experienced episodes of anaphylaxis during the study.

"It's important to remember that the children in this study followed a strict protocol and had 24/7 access to the study team," said Dr. Turner.

"We are now planning to compare boiled peanut treatment with conventional peanut immunotherapy as part of a direct comparative study and hope to demonstrate that this type of peanut can be used in peanut medicine. Immunotherapy is a safe and affordable option for children with peanut allergies treated in the NHS. . But we strongly advise people not to try this at home and seek advice from their doctor. "

The results should be published in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.

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