Peanut

While three million Americans suffer from a nut allergy, there's little in the way of medical intervention. But in a world first, researchers have taken a cue from the pandemic vaccines and used mRNA technology to help the immune system fight back.

Peanut allergies can be very serious, potentially resulting in life-threatening anaphylaxis. There could be new hope for eliminating such allergies, however, thanks to the use of peanut-packin' microneedles.

The latest results from a team developing treatments for peanut allergies have reaffirmed promising earlier findings, and also teased out new insights around the long-term treatment outcomes and how side effects might be kept to a minimum.

A comprehensive study from the UK has found that introducing children to certain foods at an early age is associated with a lower risk of developing allergies – and the correlation is clear even when subjects didn’t stick strictly to the regime.

Another promising potential treatment for peanut allergies has just emerged via a promising early trial at Stanford University, where scientists found an antibody treatment enabled those with severe allergies to stomach peanuts for some time.

The first oral immunotherapy agent to treat peanut allergy is set to be approved, but questions still remain over how effective and long-lasting it is.

A meta-analysis of a dozen trials into the efficacy of an oral immunotherapy treatment designed to reduce allergic reactions to peanuts has concluded the treatment may work in clinical environments but it also results in patients suffering from more real-world adverse allergic events.

A new oral desensitization treatment for children with peanut allergies is on the cusp of FDA approval, however questions remain over both the long-term efficacy of the treatment and the ultimate cost for what is essentially not that different to peanut flour in a capsule.

Rresearchers at the University of Michigan have found a way to retrain the immune system to ignore allergens by developing a nasal spray that vaccinates against peanut allergies, with promising results in mouse tests.

A new four-year follow-up study on the efficacy of a probiotic-based peanut allergy cure has revealed the majority of the original successful participants still displaying tolerance to peanuts, paving the way for the final phase of trials to bring the treatment to the public.

Soon you may no longer have to choose between better-tasting and better-for-you. Scientists have developed a method of boosting the antioxidant levels of milk chocolate up to those of its dark counterpart, while also putting a waste product to new use.​

In western cultures, peanut allergies are the leading cause of food-related anaphylaxis death. Needless to say, therefore, people with such allergies need to be protected against exposure to the nuts – and a skin patch may help provide that protection.​