Kiddipedia
The fear of your child suffering from an anaphylactic attack due to peanut allergies may become a thing of the past due a breakthrough in results from the Murdoch Research Institute.
Professor Mim Tang, who pioneered this study, discovered a pro-biotic treatment for peanut allergies, the treatment was Pro-biotic and Peanut oral immunotherapy (PPOIT).
The original trial commenced over eight years ago and included 62 children with peanut allergy. They were randomly assigned in equal numbers to receive the pro-biotic peanut treatment or a control placebo. At the end of the 18 months of treatment, they were tested to see if they had developed tolerance.
Dr. Tang said that, they we’re very happy that 82% of those who received the peanut pro-biotic treatment, went home to eat peanuts and were deemed tolerant to this food.
Scientists at the Murdoch Institute then followed up the children who underwent the trial 4 years later. This was to see if the treatment had long lasting benefits. They have found out that the majority of children who had originally gained tolerance were still eating peanuts, 4 years later; and the ones who did the challenge, majority of them were still tolerant.
Majority of the children who underwent the Pro-biotic and Peanut Oral Immunotherapy (PPOI), about 80%, are still eating peanut as part of their diet and about 70% have confirmed long term tolerance to peanut.
“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. Over half were consuming moderate to large amounts of peanut on a regular basis, others were only eating peanut infrequently. The importance of this finding is that these children were able to eat peanut like children who don’t have peanut allergy and still maintain their tolerant state, protected against reactions to peanut. We are now examining whether these beneficial effects of our novel treatment have also resulted in improved quality of life,” the researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute said.
“The 80% of children who had a combination of probiotic peanut oral immunotherapy treatment were able to tolerate peanut at the end of the trial, compared to less than 4% of the placebo group” the researchers said. Those who developed tolerance were instructed to put peanut in their diet while the children who remained allergic to it were advised to avoid the food for safety reasons.
Professor Tang also said that, “It also suggests the exciting possibility that tolerance is a realistic target for treating food allergy. This is a major step forward in identifying an effective treatment to address the food allergy problem in Western societies,”
Prota Therapeutics, a bio-technology company, was jointly set up by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and One Ventures to develop PPOIT for it to become an FDA approved product and for it to be a treatment available globally for people who have peanut allergy.
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