It's hard to keep your spirits up while
studying for the GAMSAT exam, so here’s some fantastic news in the world of medicine. We are now one step closer in developing a treatment to prevent peanut allergies in people. Peanut allergies are fairly prevalent within Australia, affecting about 3 in every 100 children. Severe cases can result in anaphylaxis, which can cause death. That’s why news of this treatment is particularly exciting. And the fact that it may be available within just 5 years is even better.
Researches from our very own Murdoch Children’s Research Institute conducted a study involving a trial of 62 children aged 1-10 with peanut allergies who were given a daily combination of peanut protein and a dose of probiotics (
Lactobacillus rhamnosus), over an 18-month period. The dose of the peanut protein increased over the course of the study. At the end of the 18-month period, 82% of the children had built up a tolerance to peanuts and were able to consume the equivalent of 16 peanuts four weeks after the study. That’s a significant improvement, as past studies using only peanut protein saw fewer than a third of the patients gain tolerance.
“Based on the results we have seen to date, if nine children were given probiotic and peanut therapy, seven would benefit. This is a very promising result, and we look forward to seeing further evidence from the current trial and progressing the development of this approach so that all children with peanut allergy can access this treatment,” said Professor Mimi Tang.
The next step was to conduct more studies to determine whether the children can develop a more permanent tolerance to peanut allergy compared to the first study, which only tested tolerance of up to 4 weeks. Having a longer term tolerance means that this treatment could act more as a vaccine, preventing all future allergic reactions from occurring after just a few doses of probiotics.
This could really be a potential cure.
However, conducting these such future studies and speeding things up would require more funding. Well, good news here too. This study has now been backed by $15 million, from which $8 million has been provided by Australian life sciences and technology venture capital firm OneVentures. “Peanut allergies are a massive problem and this is an innovative approach. There’s a clear path to a marketable product here that could have tremendous impact globally,” OneVentures managing partner Paul Kelly told The Australian.
The treatment has also started gaining attention of other global pharmaceutical companies and discussions are ongoing to obtain an addition $7 million from investors and partners of OneVentures. This boost to funding, on top of the international attention, is great for speeding up these trials and getting this treatment out into the world.
Professor Tang has said that further trials involving over 200 children have already begun this year in Melbourne, Australia and Perth in order to test whether the tolerance is longer-lasting by increasing the testing period to three months after the 18-month therapy has ended.
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