Children could be fed a pill containing six probiotics to cure them of food allergies, according to a groundbreaking new study.
For years, scientists have known that people with allergies or digestive disorders could be treated with doses of 'friendly' gut bacteria from healthy people.
But the gut is incredibly complex - we all have millions of bacteria in our guts which change over time - making it hard to work out which are the 'protective' microbes, and which fuel allergy.
Now, a team at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has identified five or six types of bacteria that seem to be the silver bullets for combating food allergy after using computational models to analyze each microbe closer than ever.
Testing their theory on mice with egg allergies, it worked: most of those who received the therapy were able to eat eggs compared to those who did not.
A team at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has identified five or six types of bacteria that seem to be the silver bullets for combating food allergy after using computational models to analyze each microbe closer than ever
'This represents a sea change in our approach to therapeutics for food allergies,' co-senior author Lynn Bry, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts Host-Microbiome Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said.
'We've identified the microbes that are associated with protection and ones that are associated with food allergies in patients.
'If we administer defined combinations representing the protective microbes as a therapeutic, not only can we prevent food allergies from happening, but we can reverse existing food allergies in pre-clinical models.
'With these microbes, we are resetting the immune system.'
Scientists have spent decades trying to find something to treat food allergies, which can be incredibly debilitating, and difficult to navigate.
Thirty-two million Americans are allergic to some type of ingredient, mainly nuts, fish, egg, and milk.
While some may outgrow their allergy, many don't, and, short of experimental therapies, avoiding ingredients is the only option. Though that's hard, too: in 2017, Natasha Lednan-Laperouse, 15, died after buying a Pret a Manger baguette in London which contained undeclared sesame.
The only other option that parents turn to - with meager results - is 'oral immunotherapy': feeding their child a little bit of the thing they're allergic to to build up
