Peanut allergy cured in children using immunotherapy
A potentially life-threatening peanut allergy has been essentially cured in 9 out of 10 recipients of a new treatment which gradually escalates the amount of peanut protein the body can tolerate.
Other treatments such as vaccines and antibodies are also under development, but the new oral immunotherapy is claimed to be the first to successfully allow people to tolerate such a food allergy.
"We've shown fantastic results, with 80 to 90 per cent of children being able to tolerate eating peanuts regularly after treatment," says Andrew Clark of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, UK, who co-led the team that developed the treatment.
Source:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24968-peanut-allergy-cured-in-children-using-immunotherapy.html?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC|NSNS|2013-GLOBAL-hoot#.UuypIj2Sz_F
Reference:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)62301-6/fulltext
Image via foodnavigator
I'm still a little intrigued.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how long nut allergies have been around, it is surprising that it has taken so long to get to this point
ReplyDeleteAging has been around from day 1 of our existence still we have no cure ...so ;)
ReplyDeleteAgeing affects everyone though (who knows for sure though...). I do wonder how nut allergies come about, especially if the parents are not allergic. Environmental factors?
ReplyDeleteIt makes perfect sense! And for those with pollen allergies, honey from "neighborhood" plants can greatly diminish hay fever/pollen allergies. True story.
ReplyDelete