Researchers discover bacterial compound that can cure a person of food allergies, but it tastes so bad that it will be difficult to convince people to take it
- Researchers believe that the butyrate bacteria can help cure a person of their food allergies
- Delivering the bacteria to a person via a pill is challenging because of its foul smell and taste
- A University of Chicago research team thinks they can make bacteria palatable with a new polymer they’ve created
- Although still in the early stages, they hope their findings could lead to a cure for food allergies.
By Mansur Shaheen, US Deputy Health Editor for Dailymail.Com
Posted: 21:52, August 22, 2022 | Updated: 21:55, 22 August 2022
Scientists have discovered a potential cure for food allergies, but they still have one hurdle to clear: the compound at the center of the treatment smells and tastes unpleasant.
Researchers at the University of Chicago are looking for an answer. A team found that “polymeric micelles” were able to cure mice of peanut allergies and believe it will be effective against all food-based allergies and inflammation.
Delivering the drug to a person’s gut is a problem, though. Researchers describe the metabolites that should be the focus of a potential oral drug as smelling and tasting like dog poop or rancid butter, a not-so-appealing prospect.
The Chicago team has designed a delivery system that uses a chemical called butanoyloxyethyl methacrylamide that they believe can mask the drug’s bad smell and taste and make it palatable for consumption.
Although initial tests focused on nut allergies, the researchers hope that this could be used as a basis for curing all kinds of human allergies and some inflammatory diseases.
Researchers have discovered a bacteria that may help cure peanut allergies and potentially other types as well. It’s not pleasant for many, but it presents another challenge (file photo)
The researchers, who will present their findings this week at the fall 2022 meeting of the American Chemical Society, found that the polymeric micelles they built to fight allergies and inflammation can fight allergies to peanuts when tested on mice.
They identified butyrate as a key bacteria in the stomach microbiome that helps maintain the lining of the gut.
Daily dose of peanut powder can help up to three-quarters of children overcome their allergy, study says
Daily doses of peanut powder can help nearly three-quarters of children overcome their allergies, a study suggested today
Researchers tested the effects of slowly increasing peanut intake in just under 100 children affected by the allergy. To begin with, they were given 0.1 mg of peanut protein powder, the equivalent of 0.03 percent of an individual nut.
Seventy-one percent avoided a reaction when given the equivalent of 16 peanuts two and a half years later. By contrast, only two percent avoided a rash in the placebo group
But not all of the children were considered “cured” — only a fifth met the definition of remission
However, the scientists, led by a team from the University of Arkansas, say success rates for immunotherapy were higher among infants, suggesting there is a “window of opportunity” for treat children from the beginning.
Allergies can cause anaphylactic shock: a deadly overreaction of the immune system that can kill in minutes
A person who does not have butyrate in the stomach will allow partially digested food to leave the intestine, causing the body’s immune system to react.
This immune reaction causes the symptoms that a person will experience as a result of an allergic reaction.
Butyrate plays a key role in ensuring that the body also builds tolerance to foods. People with a lack of this in their microbiome will not be able to properly digest certain foods.
“So we thought, why don’t we just deliver the metabolites, like butyrate, that produce a healthy microbiome?” Dr. Jeffrey Huddell, one of the study’s principal investigators, told NeuroscienceNews.
The bacteria can be delivered orally or via fecal transplant. Developing a pill that can deliver it to the body is the most viable form of home treatment.
The scientists, however, ran into a major problem: “Butyrate smells really bad, like dog poop and rancid butter, and it also tastes bad, so people wouldn’t want to swallow it,” he said. say Dr. Shijie Cao.
This led the research team to work on developing a user-friendly delivery system. They combined the chemicals butanoyloxyethyl methacrylamide and methacrylic acid.
This polymer, as it’s called, “hid” the butyrate chains that cause off-taste and odor, potentially making them palatable.
They tested their mixture on mice once more. The drug was still able to help the mice with their allergies, while the polymers surrounding the bacteria were excreted.
Peanut allergies of varying degrees affect three million Americans. A study by the National Institutes of Health describes it as a “significant health concern.”
About 32 million Americans suffer from some type of food allergy, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
The Chicago researchers’ discovery will need years of additional trials before it can be used in humans, but there is a chance that their findings could form the basis of future drugs to treat allergies.