Researchers think it may be possible to cure children of peanut allergies by feeding them tiny daily doses of peanut flour to build up their tolerance to the nuts.
In a study published in the journal Allergy, researchers at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, gave children with severe peanut allergies tiny doses of peanut flour every day: just five milligrams a day at first.
The dosage was slowly built up over six months until the volunteers trained their bodies to tolerate at least 800 milligrams, equivalent to five whole peanuts.
Lead researcher Dr. Andy Clark, a consultant in pediatric allergy, says the children can now safely eat at least 10 whole peanuts.
The results are still preliminary and parents are not recommended to experiment with the treatment at home. Clark notes that longer-term follow-up is needed to confirm the findings. But he says if the results can be replicated in a larger and longer study, the implications for millions of people could be immense.
"Every time people with a peanut allergy eat something, they're frightened that it might kill them," Clark said in a statement. "Our motivation was to find a treatment that would change that and give them the confidence to eat what they like. It's all about quality of life."
Four children took part in the initial study and a further 18 young people aged 7 to 17 are now following the program too.
The researchers believe their method is not a permanent cure, "but as long as they go on taking a daily dose they should maintain their tolerance." Clarks says.
The trial is the first successful program of its kind. Previous attempts in the 1990s to cure peanut allergies using injections of peanut compounds were not successful and produced serious side-effects.
Similar desensitizing has been achieved with people allergic to bee and wasp stings and for people with pollen allergies, but this is the first achievement with a food allergy.
Nine-year-old Michael Frost was one of the first participants in the programme, and has been severely allergic to peanuts since he was a baby. His mother Kate says the trial's success has changed so many things about her family's daily life.
"A peanut allergy affects the whole family. You can't go out to a restaurant. If your child goes to a birthday party, he takes a packed lunch. When he goes out, you lose control of what he eats - and for so many years, I've had a permanent knot of anxiety in my stomach. Suddenly, those feelings have gone."
The researchers say there is no reason why adults with severe peanut allergies could not also benefit from the treatment.
People with peanut allergies can have severe reactions to even tiny amounts of the ground nuts, including anaphylactic shock, which can cause a drop in blood pressure, swelling of the tongue or throat and sometimes death. Their immune systems mistakenly interpret compounds from the foods as invaders and create antibodies to fight them.
It's estimated more than 150,000 Canadians suffer from peanut allergies. Of them, about 25 to 35 per cent are also sensitive to tree nuts, such as almonds. Some children outgrow the allergy on their own but for at least 80 per cent, it's thought that the allergy will be lifelong.
