A new clinical trial has found that boiling peanuts can help up to 80 percent of allergic children desensitize them.
Boiling the nuts changes their chemical composition, reducing the likelihood of an allergic reaction and allowing the researchers to gradually introduce the nuts, which had been boiled for a decreasing amount of time, to the children involved in the trial. ‘one year.
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At the end of the test, 80 percent of the children could tolerate a dose of 12 unboiled peanuts.
While it’s potentially life-changing news for parents of children with severe nut allergies, like nine-year-old Xavier Connery, experts are warning against trying it at home.
However, scientists are working on further research with more widespread applications.
The trial was conducted by Flinders University and the South Australian Institute of Health and Medical Research, and included 70 children aged 6 to 18 who suffered from varying degrees of allergies to peanuts
“Our clinical trial shows promising early signs to show that boiling peanuts can provide a safe and effective method of treating peanut-allergic children with sequential doses of boiled and roasted peanuts over an extended period of time,” said Associate Professor Luke Grzeskowiak.
During the first 12 weeks of the trial, the peanuts given to the children were boiled for 12 hours. For the next 20 weeks, they were boiled for only two hours and then for the last 20 weeks they were given unboiled, roasted peanuts.
While 61 percent of participants experienced “treatment-related adverse effects” during the trial, only three children had to withdraw because of these effects, and the scientists said it “demonstrated a profile of favorable security”.
Of the 67 participants who reached the end of the trial, 56 (or 80 percent of the original cohort) had become desensitized to the target dose of peanuts.
And of the 45 desensitized participants who participated in the follow-up study six months later, 43 were still able to consume the target dose of peanuts without severe allergic reactions, Grzeskowiak said.
Associate Professor Luke Grzeskowiak was one of the researchers involved in the clinical trial. Credit: 7NEWS
The research is good news for Brigette Connery and could reduce mealtime stress for her son Xavier, who is among the 3% of children in the Western world who suffer from peanut allergies.
When he was just 18 months old, Xavier was rushed to hospital after eating a small amount of satay sauce.
“His mouth started to swell, he started to get hives around his mouth and face and then … he threw up the projectile,” Brigette said.
Although some pediatricians have previously recommended various types of oral immunotherapy (OIT), including increasing amounts of food allergens given under medical supervision based on the severity of the allergy, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has not has approved any ILO products.
University of South Australia expert Dr Preethi Eldi, who is looking into developing vaccines for peanut allergies, said studies like the latest one were a positive step towards getting the ILOs approved.
“What these OIT trials do is give you the option to raise your threshold, but depending on whether you continue to undergo this treatment,” Eldi said.
“That’s the thing about OIT, (it’s a) long or life-long treatment … it makes it difficult to maintain that desensitization threshold.”
Eldi said previous studies had shown that about 20 percent of children who underwent OIT completely outgrew their peanut allergy, while 80 percent were more tolerant.
Xavier said that if he was able to overcome his allergy, it would make mealtimes much more enjoyable.
“Sometimes I feel excluded from eating food,” she said.
His mother said she would be much less stressed when she wasn’t around at Xavier’s mealtimes.
“It would be absolutely life-changing to be really honest with you, because it’s something that’s always in the back of our minds,” Brigette said.
Xavier Connery would love to be able to eat peanuts if he could overcome his allergy. Credit: 7NEWS
Grzeskowiak said a larger definitive clinical trial would be needed to further confirm the study’s results.
“With no currently approved treatment for peanut allergy in Australia, there is much more research to be done,” he said.
“Oral immunotherapy does not work for everyone and we are in the process of improving our understanding of how these treatments work and what factors may influence people’s response to treatment.
“This will be really important for assessing individual suitability for treatment and improving treatment decisions in the future.”
The clinical trial was funded by Channel 7’s Children’s Research Foundation and published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy.
Flinders University researchers strongly advised families not to try the experiment at home.
“If you don’t do it right, you could be generating a product that’s still mildly allergenic,” said Associate Professor Tim Chataway.
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