text: A breakthrough Melbourne-made treatment that is providing a long-term cure for children with a deadly peanut allergy may soon be widely available. 
   
   The experimental peanut-probiotic treatment led to 82 per cent of children who participated successfully being able to eat peanuts. Now, four years later, 80 per cent of those cured children are still eating peanuts. 
   
   "These children have been eating peanut freely in their diet without having to follow any particular program of peanut intake in the years after treatment was completed," said lead researcher Professor Mimi Tang. 
   
   The clinical trial was conducted at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne. 
   
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   Link More than 80 per cent of children in the Melbourne trial were cured of their peanut allergy. 
   
   Professor Tang hopes a product can be on the shelves in the next five years. 
   
   "This changes sufferers' lives. They can now eat peanuts. Their lives change completely," she said. 
   
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   "Our feedback is these kids are now going to parties without worry." 
   
   The treatment combines a small amount of peanut flour with a very high dose of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus​. 
   
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   Link Professor Mimi Tang of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute with Dr Graeme Wald. Photo: Supplied 
   
   This bacterium, commonly found in small doses in yoghurt, is a known immune system modulator – it calms the immune system's response to things it would normally react to, reducing the severity of allergic reactions. 
   
   Paired together, the probiotic mix encourages the immune system to gradually tolerate larger and larger doses of peanut flour. 
   
   "Probiotics are very potent immune-modulating agents to shift the way the immune system responds. This particular probiotic has been shown in other situations to support tolerance-like responses. It creates an environment for the immune system to respond differently," Professor Tang said. 
   
   About 3 per cent of babies are born with a peanut allergy. Peanuts are among the most-common causes of anaphylaxis with hospital admissions over the past decade increasing five-fold in children under four. 
   
   In 2013 Professor Tang's team administered the therapy to 28 allergic children. 
   
   The amount of peanut flour was slowly increased over about 18 months, allowing the children to build up tolerance. At the end of the original trial, 82 per cent of treated children were happily eating peanuts as part of a normal diet. 
   
   In a follow-up study, researchers went back and re-tested those children for peanut allergy to determine if the treatment had lasted. 
   
   It had. They found that four years later, 80 per cent of those cured children were still showing no signs of allergic reaction to eating peanuts. 
   
   "These findings suggest our treatment is effective at inducing long-term tolerance, up to four years after completing treatment, and is safe," Professor Tang said. 
   
   
   
   "It also suggests the exciting possibility that tolerance is a realistic target for treating food allergy. This is a major step forward in identifying an effective treatment to address the food allergy problem in Western societies." 
   
   The institute will now work with a venture capital firm to fund the commercialisation of a treatment, which would involve doses of powder taken every day for 18 months. 
   
   With AAP ||||| New research from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute may have found a cure for peanut allergies. 
   
   The study found within the first eighteen months 82 per cent of participants were cured of their allergy. 
   
   In a follow-up study four years later, researchers discovered 80 per cent of participants were still cured and showing no signs of allergy. ||||| Australian researchers hail breakthrough after ‘life-changing’ tolerance persists for up to four years 
   
   Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in the treatment of peanut allergy in children. 
   
   A small clinical trial conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has led to two-thirds of children treated with an experimental immunotherapy treatment being cured of their allergy. Importantly, this desensitisation to peanuts persisted for up to four years after treatment. 
   
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   “These children had been eating peanut freely in their diet without having to follow any particular program of peanut intake in the years after treatment was completed,” said the lead researcher, Prof Mimi Tang. 
   
   Peanut allergy is the most common cause of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, and one of the most common causes of death from food allergy. 
   
   To combat this Tang, an immunologist and allergist, pioneered a new form of treatment that combines a probiotic with peanut oral immunotherapy, known as PPOIT. Instead of avoiding the allergen, the treatment is designed to reprogram the immune system’s response to peanuts and eventually develop a tolerance. 
   
   It’s thought that combining the probiotic with the immunotherapy gives the immune system the “nudge” it needs to do this, according to Tang. 
   
   Forty-eight children were enrolled in the PPOIT trial and were randomly given either a combination of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus with peanut protein in increasing amounts, or a placebo, once daily for 18 months. 
   
   At the end of the original trial in 2013, 82% of children who received the immunotherapy treatment were deemed tolerant to peanuts compared with just 4% in the placebo group. 
   
   Four years later, the majority of the children who gained initial tolerance were still eating peanuts as part of their normal diet and 70% passed a further challenge test to confirm long-term tolerance. 
   
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   Tang said the results were exciting and had been life-changing for participants. “The way I see it is that we had children who came into the study allergic to peanuts, having to avoid peanuts in their diet, being very vigilant around that, carrying a lot of anxiety with that and, at the end of treatment and even four years later, many of these children who had benefited from our probiotic peanut therapy could now live like a child who didn’t have peanut allergy.” 
   
   The results are published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. 
   
   If confirmed by larger clinical studies, the broader hope is that this treatment can have an impact on the high rates of food allergy among children. 
   
   “This is a major step forward in identifying an effective treatment to address the food allergy problem in western societies,” Tang said.
target: – Could a cure for peanut allergies be close? Australia's ABC reports that in a new study, 82% of participants saw their peanut allergies cured within the first 18 months of treatment. Four years later, 80% of the participants still showed no signs of an allergy, and 70% passed a further test meant to confirm long-term peanut tolerance, the Guardian reports. The research out of Australia's Murdoch Childrens Research Institute involved 48 children, some of whom were given an immunotherapy treatment and some of whom got a placebo. The children who still appeared to be cured four years later "had been eating peanut freely in their diet without having to follow any particular program of peanut intake," says Mimi Tang, the lead researcher. Tang, an immunologist and allergist, combined a probiotic with a method known as peanut oral immunotherapy—a high dose of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus was combined with peanut protein in increasing amounts. The probiotic is known to calm the immune system and reduce allergic reactions; the idea is to "reprogram" the way the immune system reacts to peanut intake, Tang explains. She hopes to have a product to market within five years, the Age reports. "For the first time, we could have products on the market that provide meaningful and long-lasting treatment benefits, which allow sufferers to eat peanut products without thinking about it, as part of a regular diet," says the CEO of a biotech firm working on a treatment doctors will be able to prescribe, per 9News. (Here's when and how you should feed your baby peanuts.)