- Planters Peanut Products Under Recall Due to Listeria Risk
- That ‘New Car Smell’ Could Be Toxic Carcinogens
- Gene Discovery Points to a New Form of Alzheimer’s
- Scientists May Have Located Your Brain’s ‘Neural Compass’
- Almost All Counterfeit Oxycontin Pills Contain Fentanyl
- A Parent’s Watchful Eye Does Keep Kids From Drugs, Alcohol: Study
- AI Might Boost Detection of A-Fib
- Drug May Help Folks Kick the Vaping Habit
- Small Pump May Let Kids Stay Home As They Await New Heart
- Gene Therapy Improves Vision in People With Inherited Blindness
Did Bone Marrow Transplant Cure Peanut Allergy?
FRIDAY, Nov. 8Bone marrow transplants may help cure peanut allergies, a new case study suggests.
The study involved a 10-year-old boy who no longer had a peanut allergy after undergoing a bone marrow transplant for leukemia.
“It has been reported that bone marrow and liver transplants can transfer peanut allergy from donor to recipient,” study author Dr. Yong Luo said in a news release from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). “But our research found a rare case in which a transplant seems to have cured the recipient of their allergy.”
The case involved a boy who was diagnosed with a peanut allergy when he was 15 months old. He had the bone marrow transplant at age 10 and received his new marrow from a donor with no known allergies.
Soon after the transplant, it appeared that the boy no longer had a peanut allergy. That discovery was confirmed by allergists through an oral food challenge, in which the boy ate a small amount of peanut and showed no allergic reaction.
The research was scheduled for presentation this week at the ACAAI annual meeting in Baltimore. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Study co-author Dr. Steven Weiss said this and previous research indicates that “genetic modification during the early stages of immune cell development in bone marrow may play a large role in causing allergy.”
Peanut allergy is the most common food allergy among school-aged children in the United States, affecting about 400,000 youngsters, according to the ACAAI. Unlike milk or soy allergies, peanut allergies tend to last a lifetime.
Even if a parent thinks their child may no longer have an allergy, proper testing should be done to confirm if the child is still sensitive to any particular allergens, according to the ACAAI.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has more about food allergies.
Source: HealthDay
Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.