A study published on 5 August in Science Translational Medicine reports that six people with high peanut allergies can tolerate the nut after receiving a faecal transplant. The phase I clinical trial involved 15 people.
Prior to the study, participants could not consume more than 100 milligrams of peanut protein without an immune reaction. Four months after the transplant, one participant could consume 300 milligrams of peanut protein, while five participants could eat 600 milligrams or more.
People who responded to the treatment
During the trial, participants received an odourless and tasteless pill containing gut bacteria from healthy volunteers without a peanut allergy. Most participants received 36 pills in a single day and did not experience severe side effects. Five of the participants received antibiotics for four days before the transplant.
Researchers suggested that nine people did not respond to the treatment, possibly due to gender-related differences, the single-day delivery of bacteria, or a lack of prior antibiotic use. Five of the six people who responded to the treatment were men.
Scientific findings and expert reactions
Researchers transplanted gut bacteria from the stool samples of trial participants into mice and found that bacteria from responders protected mice from developing allergies to egg protein. Talal Chatila, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and study co-author, said the treatment is likely to work for more than just peanut allergies because mouse studies tested a different allergen.
Microbial therapy is an intervention that should be further evaluated for treating food allergies.
Cathryn Nagler, an immunology researcher at the University of Chicago in Illinois, said that while faecal transplants were previously only in mouse models, they are now being used in people, which is 'exciting'.
The potential for this therapy to have a lasting benefit is 'really, really exciting'.
Stephen Tilles, an allergist-immunologist and clinical professor at the University of Washington who was not part of the study, said the food allergy community has been waiting for these results and described them as 'very exciting'. Tilles also noted that the results may not be 'ready for prime time' yet.
