A study out of Australia has set an ambitious goal: it’s working towards a peanut allergy cure.

Associate professor Mimi Tang of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute out of Melborne, Australia is working with a number of children with severe peanut allergies. After one year of the study, she already has 14 patients at the top dose of peanut allergen. That’s the equivalent of 6 to 7 peanuts on a daily basis.

Other recent studies have shown that starting with a very small dose of peanut allergen and working up slowly has been able to desensitize children. The starting oral dose is very low, equivalent to 1/1000th of a nut! But within a number of months, children have been able to eat larger and larger amounts of peanut flour or peanuts, and not react.

Tang’s experiment is adding another feature to the protocol, and that is a probiotic. The intention with adding the probiotic is to completely and permanently change the way the person’s body reacts to the peanut allergen. Tang says, “We’re aiming for a cure.”

Source: NineMSN