The boiled peanuts could provide a means to help children overcome peanut allergies, according to the results of a year-long Australian clinical trial. In a study of 70 children from six to eighteen years with certified peanut allergies, 80% were able to eat legumes without allergic reactions after receiving increasing daily doses of boiled and roasted peanuts, a potential treatment known as oral immunotherapy. However, the authors of the study cautioned parents against giving boiled peanuts to their peanut-allergic children.
Oral immunotherapy using boiled peanuts. Latest research from Australia. @ClinExpAllergy https://t.co/qwVxUS0N9h pic.twitter.com/FzJIxntp0D
— APC London (@USA_peanuts_UK) January 11, 2023
I study
In the first part of the study, for 12 weeks the children ingested doses of peanuts that had been boiled for 12 hours. For the next 20 weeks, the participants ate boiled peanuts for two hours; then another 20 weeks of ingesting roasted peanuts followed.
Initial doses in the clinical trial were supervised by physicians for adverse reactions. The children were initially given 62.5 mg of ground boiled peanut powder, the equivalent of about one-sixteenth of a boiled peanut, and increased their intake over time. Of the 70 children, 56 — or 80 percent — were eventually able to ingest the target dose of 12 roasted peanuts per day without an allergic reaction.
“This offers a high level of protection against accidental exposurewhich in our case was really the goal: to eliminate the anxiety and stress that comes with worrying about accidental exposure to peanuts,” said lead author of the study, Associate Prof. Luke Grzeskowiak of Flinders University e il South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.
Permanent results?
“It’s really important that people don’t undertake immunotherapy without an adequate level of supervision. At this point, it is part of the experimental studies» explain the researchers who did not test participants’ ability to tolerate peanuts weeks or months after stopping treatment.
Experts have long suspected that consuming boiled peanuts in parts of Asia may help reduce childhood peanut allergy rates. Commenting on the clinical trial, Dr Aiken said the research was a first step in the right direction: “Research sponsors are very clear on the need for more research into using boiled peanuts as a treatment for peanut allergy. We want these treatments to be safe and convenient»
Waiting for the ok
The clinical trial did not include a placebo component to compare the effectiveness of consuming boiled peanuts. At the moment, no oral immunotherapy for food allergies is approved by the Australian medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. A peanut allergen powder called Palforzia has been approved for use in the UK and US. The study was published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy .