- Researchers are working on new medications to treat allergies by targeting the body's immune system.
- Biotech company Aimmune found that after a year on its a peanut allergy treatment,
- The hope with these treatments is to lessen the responses to an allergen, so instead of really intense reactions, you can take an accidental bite of a peanut-butter laced sandwich and survive.
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An experimental treatment for peanut allergies just succeeded in a key trial (AIMT)
The hope with these treatments is to lessen the responses to an allergen, so instead of really intense reactions, you can take an accidental bite of a peanut-butter laced sandwich and survive.
Allergies are a part of life, popping up at group dinners, in family members, even out of the blue when enjoying fresh produce.
More than 50 million Americans have allergies in any given year, according to
The hope with these treatments is to lessen the responses to an allergen, so instead of really intense reactions, you can take an accidental bite of a peanut-butter laced sandwich and continue your day.
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In a late-stage study, Aimmune, a biotech
Re-thinking food allergies
With these advancements in what we know about allergies and how to treat them, you might be asking: Could we one day cure allergies?
"As we learn more and more about that, and we begin to intervene earlier and earlier, are we going to cure allergy? Probably not, but perhaps in some of those kids but I would doubt in all of them," Aimmune's chief medical officer Dr. Dan Adelman, an allergist and immunologist, told Business Insider in January.
"There's always going to be room for a therapeutic intervention for those who still go on to develop allergy."
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Instead, Aimmune CEO Stephen Dilly envisions a future in which people living with allergies have what's known as "functional cures." That is, they're able to live with the condition impacting their day to day lives too heavily. It might still mean avoiding peanuts or other allergens, but it might mean that the fear of accidentally coming in contact with it doesn't mean a trip to the emergency room.
Or, for foods that are harder to avoid like milk and eggs — which can negatively impact on a person's overall nutritional health — it might mean getting to the point where people are able to reintroduce them into their diets.
It's what Aimmune's doing with its treatments.
"Can we get to that kind of level? That looks attractive," Dilly said.
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