BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM
For millions of people living with peanut allergies, mealtime often comes with a side of anxiety. But new research offers a hopeful twist: daily doses of peanut protein may help adults with the allergy safely build tolerance and reduce their risk of severe reactions.
This approach, called oral immunotherapy, has already been approved in the United States for children since 2020. Now, a small but promising trial led by researchers at King’s College London suggests that the same strategy could work for adults — the group who, as lead researcher Stephen Till points out, “spend most of their life living with this allergy.”
Peanut allergies occur when the immune system mistakes peanut proteins for harmful invaders, triggering a surge of IgE antibodies that can lead to inflammation, swelling, vomiting, and in extreme cases, life-threatening anaphylactic shock. Until recently, the only defense was strict avoidance. But oral immunotherapy aims to retrain the immune system by exposing it to small, gradually increasing amounts of the allergen.
Building tolerance, one peanut at a time
In the study, 21 adults with peanut allergies took part in a carefully supervised desensitisation program. At the beginning, participants could tolerate only about one-eighth of a peanut before experiencing a reaction. The treatment began with daily doses as small as one 40th of a peanut — a fraction so tiny it might be hard to spot on your plate.
Every two weeks, these doses were slightly increased, with the goal of reaching the protein equivalent of four large peanuts per day. After several months, 15 participants completed the treatment and participated in a supervised allergy test. Remarkably, all but one could eat the equivalent of five peanuts without experiencing an allergic reaction.
While three participants dropped out of the study due to allergic responses and three others for unrelated reasons, experts consider the dropout rate acceptable for this type of treatment. “It is very promising,” said Cezmi Akdis of the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research, who was not involved in the study.
How the immune system responds
The research team also analyzed participants’ blood samples before and after the treatment. The results showed an increase in IgG antibodies, which help counterbalance the overactive IgE antibodies responsible for allergic reactions. This immune shift suggests that the therapy does more than temporarily mask symptoms — it may help recalibrate the body’s response to peanuts.
“This approach could mean that adults with peanut allergy can be relieved of the anxiety of eating food contaminated with peanuts,” said Akdis.
What comes next
While the results are encouraging, experts caution that this was an early-stage trial with a small group of participants. Larger studies will be needed to confirm the findings, determine how long the protective effects last, and assess whether daily or regular doses would be required to maintain tolerance.
“People take pills every day, so I think people affected by peanut allergies may well be fine adhering to this sort of method,” Akdis added.
If these findings hold up in future trials, oral immunotherapy could become a game-changer for adults living with peanut allergies — offering not just protection, but peace of mind.
(Always consult your healthcare provider before seeking new treatments for medical conditions.)
Source study: Allergy— Oral immunotherapy in peanut-allergic adults using real-world materials
