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NHS trial uses daily doses of food allergens to tackle severe
reactions
(HTM) Source
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Children have been able to enjoy foods that previously would have
triggered potentially life-threatening allergic reactions after they
took part in a "life-transforming" NHS clinical trial, doctors have
reported.
A pioneering £2.5m study is using daily doses of everyday food
products, taken under strict medical supervision, rather than drugs to
train the bodies of children as young as two to tolerate an allergen.
The approach - known as oral immunotherapy (OIT) - means children
living with food allergies may no longer have a reaction if they eat
something that accidentally contains the allergen.
"We must wait until the trial is complete for the full picture but we
are very pleased with the results we are seeing so far," said the
study's chief investigator, Hasan Arshad, a professor of allergy and
clinical immunology at the University of Southampton.
In total, 139 children and young people aged between two and 23 with a
food allergy to peanuts or cow's milk have begun treatment on the
trial.
It is being funded by The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, which
was set up by the parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse. She died aged 15
in 2016 after experiencing a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked
into a Pret a Manger baguette.
Sibel Sonmez-Ajtai, a paediatric allergy consultant at Sheffield
Children's NHS foundation trust, said: "This study is enabling us to
do something we would never have dreamed of doing before - giving
patients the foods we know they are allergic to.
"This treatment is not a cure for a food allergy, but what it achieves
is life-transforming. To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis to 4ml
of milk to then tolerate 90ml within six to eight months is nothing
less than a miracle."
Thomas Farmer, 11, who was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when
he was one, can now eat six peanuts a day after joining the trial in
Southampton.
"It will also hopefully mean that he will be able to eat a wider
variety of food as we won't be so concerned about accidental
exposure," his mother, Lauren, said. "For Thomas to be able to achieve
all this with no medicine, just off-the-shelf foods, is amazing."
Grace Fisher, five, who has a milk allergy and joined the trial in
Newcastle, is now drinking 120ml of milk a day. Her mother, Emma,
said: "Grace is over six months into this journey and is doing
amazing. She is currently on 120ml of milk and loves her daily hot
chocolates."
The trial is being run in Southampton, London, Leicester, Newcastle,
and Sheffield. It will also be run in Scotland, with plans for Bristol
and Leeds to join.
Final results are expected in 2027. If successful, it could provide
more evidence for everyday foods treatment to be made available on the
NHS.
"If Natasha were alive today, this is exactly the type of research she
would have loved to be part of," said Natasha's mother, Tanya Ednan-
Laperouse. "We are so happy that some children with peanut and milk
allergies are already seeing the benefits of using everyday foods
under medical supervision to treat their allergic disease."
Arshad said the trial was seeking to change people's lives for the
better. He added: "Our ultimate aim is a life without the risk of
allergic reactions - reactions which for some can be severe and life-
threatening."
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