Adults with peanut allergies reduced the risk of a reaction by eating small peanut proteins every day as part of their trials. This approach has already been approved in the US for children with this condition.

Peanut allergies occur when the immune system mistakenly identifies legume proteins as threats. It reacts by producing more IgE antibodies. This is an important part of the immune response, but an allergic reaction causes overdrive. As a result, inflammation increases, causing symptoms such as swelling, itching, and vomiting. In extreme cases, it can lead to anaphylactic shock, a life-threatening response that can affect someone’s breathing or heart rate.

Until recently, the only solution was to avoid peanuts, but an intervention called oral immunotherapy was approved in 2020 for children with allergies in the US. This involves exposing the immune system to peanut protein, which gradually increases allergens.

However, it was unclear whether this approach worked in adults as well. “Although most of the life of an individual with a peanut allergy is spent as an adult, there was no treatment that reduced the fundamental reactivity to peanuts,” he says. Stephen Till King’s College London. “There are some grounds for suspecting that adults are more difficult to fall out than children, as your immune system is easy to fix when you’re young.”

To fill this knowledge gap, Till and his colleagues recruited 21 adults with peanut allergies. At the start of the study, participants on average only 1/8 of the peanuts were eaten before they developed an allergic reaction.

The team fed each participant a protein equivalent to one-fourth of peanuts each day for two weeks. This dose increased slightly every two weeks for several months, but was able to safely and consistently eat the equivalent of four large peanuts of protein every day.

Three participants dropped out of the study due to an allergic reaction, while three other participants left for reasons not related to treatment. “This dropout number is acceptable for this type of treatment.” Cezmi Akdis At the Swiss Allergy and Asthma Institute.

The remaining 15 participants participated in an allergy test for eating an increase in peanut protein under the supervision of the researchers. All but one of them were able to eat five peanut equivalents without an allergic reaction.

In another part of the experiment, the team analyzed blood samples collected from participants before and after receiving oral immunotherapy. This revealed that the intervention had high levels of IgG antibodies that counteract the effects of IgE antibodies.

“It’s very promising,” Akudith says. “This approach means that adults with peanut allergies may be relieved of the anxiety of eating peanut-contaminated foods.”

However, this is a relatively early stage test, and a larger test is needed to verify the results and establish how long the protection will last, he says. “I think you need to take peanuts daily or regular over the long term to maintain resistance to allergens,” Aqudith says. “People take pills every day, so I think people affected by peanut allergies are following this type of method.”

Do not try to treat allergies without medical supervision.