Genetically modified plants or immunotherapy may eliminate allergies to peanut within five years, suggests a prominent scientist from Duke University. The comments were made in the current issue of The Lancet. Peanuts can cause the most severe food allergies, affecting about three million US residents a year, and causing up to 150 deaths. The news however may put the dampeners on the free-from food market that has been enjoying sales growth of over 300 per cent in the UK since 2000, according to market analyst Mintel.In industrialised countries allergies have been rapidly increasing in children, for causes that are not entirely understood. One study showed that between 1997 and 2002, peanut allergies in children doubled in the United States.But help may be just around the corner, according to Wesley Burks from Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke University Medical Center. Scientists at various groups around the world are working on the development of novel immunotherapeutic strategies, which would alter the immune system's response to an allergen. Various approached are under investigation, but they are based on the principle of curbing the immune response of so-called Th2 cells, or by inducing tolerance. "These studies offer the possibility of at least raising the threshold of the amount of peanut that it would take to cause a life-threatening allergic reaction; whether these types of treatments are likely to cause eventual clinical tolerance to develop remains to be seen.
It is likely that in the next 5 years there will be some type of immunotherapy available for peanut allergic individuals.
It is likely that in the next 5 years there will be some type of immunotherapy available for peanut allergic individuals.
