Pharmacy Daily | Boil nuts to desensitise

BOILING peanuts for up to 12 hours could help overcome children's allergic reactions, according to the results of a clinical trial which found up to 80% of children with a peanut allergy became desensitised to eating peanuts.

The clinical trial, which was funded by the Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation and published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy, tested whether a therapy delivering sequential doses of boiled peanuts, followed by roasted peanuts, may help children overcome their peanut allergies.

The trial built on previous research of Prof Tim Chataway from Flinders University.

In the current trial to achieve the multi-step process known as oral immunotherapy, the researchers asked 70 peanut-allergic children (six to 18 years) to consume peanuts boiled for 12 hours for 12 weeks, two-hour boiled peanuts for 20 weeks, and roasted peanuts for 20 weeks.

This novel two-step therapy was tested in anticipation of achieving the daily targets of participants consuming 12 roasted peanuts without allergic reactions.

The results show 56 of the 70 participants became desensitised to the target dose of peanuts.

Treatment-related adverse events were reported in 43 of the participants, however, only three withdrew from the trial as a result, demonstrating a favourable safety profile.

Flinders University's College of Medicine and Public Health and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute Associate Professor Luke Grzeskowiak, the lead author of the study, explained that up to 3% of children in Western countries are grappling with peanut allergies, "the clinical trial could help develop a novel treatment pathway to reduce the risk of accidental peanut exposure and significantly improve quality of life for peanut-allergic children and their carers.

"With no currently approved treatment for peanut allergy in Australia there is a lot more research still to be done.

"Unfortunately, oral immunotherapy doesn't work for everyone, and we are in the process of improving our understanding of how these treatments work and what factors can influence how people respond to treatment," Grzeskowiak explained.

"This will be really important for assessing individual suitability for treatment and improving treatment decisions in the future."

The study was undertaken in collaboration with paediatric allergist Dr Billy Tao, who has been developing the novel desensitisation process to treat peanut allergies for the past decade after being inspired by similar research in the 90s.

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