Peanut allergies cracked?

摘要

During the summer a small glimmer of hope appeared on the horizon for people with a peanut allergy when researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, said they had made a breakthrough in managing the condition (Hsiao, et al, 2017). The researchers, led by Professor Mimi Tang, set out to test the potential of oral immunotherapy (giving small doses of an allergen in a bid to desensitise the immune system) as a treatment. They changed tack when they wondered what would happen if they added a probiotic. So in the 2013 study, which involved 62 children with a peanut allergy, they gave one group a probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy (PPOIT) treatment, and the other a placebo. After 18 months, 82% of the children given the PPOIT developed short-term tolerance to peanut, compared to just 4% in the placebo group.