Peanut Allergy Fix?

About 1 in 100 people in the U.S.—including many kids—suffer from a peanut allergy. In severe cases, the allergy can be deadly. But a new study has found a promising treatment that could help.

Every day for 18 months, scientists at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia gave a group of peanut allergy sufferers a powder that contained tiny amounts of peanuts and probiotics, or beneficial microorganisms. Another group with the allergy received a placebo with no active ingredients. The probiotic-peanut powder reduced allergy sufferers’ allergic immune response to peanuts—their bodies didn’t mount the same defensive reaction to peanuts. After the treatment, most people in this group could safely eat peanut-containing foods for up to four years.

“We don’t have evidence of a cure yet,” says Mimi Tang, an immunologist who led the study. “But it could significantly improve quality of life for allergy sufferers.”