Editor: Vladimir Bajic | Tactical Investor
Peanut Allergy Treatment in the Works
A company in California has been on the front line of treatments, creating a peanut protein powder to desensitize kids to peanuts at an early age.
“You want butter on your toast, Ian?” Amanda LaPete asked her 8-year-old son, Ian, while they stood over the toaster.
Ian has spent his entire life dealing with a peanut allergy.
“When I was a little baby, my mom gave me a little bit of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because she thought I was hungry and then I swelled up,” Ian explained.
“Going out to eat can be tricky, Amanda added, “making sure that there’s no contamination at the restaurant, especially at an ice cream parlor. They have to use a clean scoop for his. I worry about him if he were to go to a friend’s house.”
In the study, the company gave increasingly larger doses of peanut protein powder mixed in to various foods to nearly 500 children between the ages of 4 and 17.
At the end of one year, the company says 67 percent of the children were able to tolerate the equivalent of roughly two peanuts, something they say could be enough to avoid a potentially deadly reaction to a small exposure of peanuts.
Aimmune Therapeutics told Western Mass News in a statement:
“We at Aimmune are enormously pleased with this result, but this success really belongs to the entire food allergy community. Aimmune was originally founded through the commitment of food allergy parents, food allergy advocates, and food allergy researchers.” Full Story
Study Finds New Treatment Could End Peanut Allergy
They achieved this by changing how the immune system reacts to peanuts. Using a process called peanut oral immunotherapy, scientists combined increasing amounts of a peanut protein with the bacteria Lactobacillus rhamnosus, which eases the immune system’s allergic reactions.
Lead researcher Mimi Prang said, “It would seem that children who have benefited from the probiotic peanut therapy are able to change the way that they live and not have to really worry about peanuts anymore … That’s what’s exciting.”
Prang went on to state that, “Theoretically, it should work for any other allergen that’s also presented with this probiotic- think a really important study to do next would be to see if it works in the setting of other food allergies to induce a long-lasting tolerance.”
New treatment could be the end of peanut allergy
The test was conducted by combining a bacteria called Lactobacillus rhamnosus, with a peanut protein in increasing amounts for a process known as peanut oral immunotherapy. This combo was then administered to a group of children, giving some the probiotic and others a placebo once daily for 18 months.
After analyzing the results, they found that 80 per cent of those given the probiotic saw no signs of the allergy after four years, and 70 per cent passed an exam that determined that their peanut tolerance was long-term.
“It would seem that children who have benefited from the probiotic peanut therapy are able to change the way that they live and not have to really worry about peanuts anymore,” Mimi Prang, lead researcher, told the journal. “That’s what’s exciting.” Full Story
Scientists Edging Closer To Curing Peanut Allergies
A French biopharmaceutical company, DBV Technologies, has also made significant progress towards the ultimate goal of ending peanut allergies with their innovative new “Viaskin” patch. This quarter-size disc, which is adhered to the skin, also delivers small amounts of peanut extract to allergy sufferers in order to gradually sensitize them. During clinical trials, participants given the patch could tolerate 10 more peanuts than they could before. As reported in Fast Co Exist, the product is due to shortly reach the final stage of clinical trials and could be on the market by 2018. Full Story
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