Australian researchers believe they have found a cure for peanut allergies that could help children overcome what can be a life-threatening condition.
Published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, a clinical trial has lead to the breakthrough which found two-thirds of children who underwent experimental immunotherapy treatment were cured of their allergy up to four years on.
The treatment uses a probiotic called lactobacillus rhamnosus, which contains a peanut protein. The trial saw children take the probiotic once daily for 18 months.
Professor Mimi Tang, from Murdoch Children's Research Institute, explained to Daily Mail Australia how, following the treatment, 70 per cent of children were able to eat peanuts without having any reactions.
"We had children who came into the study allergic to peanuts, having to avoid peanuts in their diet, being very vigilant around that, carrying a lot of anxiety," she said.
"At the end of treatment, and even four years later, many of these children who had benefited from our probiotic peanut therapy could now live like a child who didn't have peanut allergy.
"These children had been eating peanuts freely in their diet without having to follow any particular program of peanut intake in the years after treatment was completed," she said.
It is thought the treatment helps to give the immune system a much needed nudge.
Forty-eight children were enrolled in the trial and were given either a combination of the probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, together with peanut protein, or a placebo, for 18 months of the trial.
At the end of stage one, which concluded in 2013, 82 per cent of children who received the probiotic and peanut oral immunotherapy treatment were considered tolerant to nuts, in comparison with only four per cent in the group receiving the placebo.
After four years the majority of those who had an initial tolerance were still able to eat peanuts as part of their diet and 70 per cent passed further testing confirming long-term tolerance to peanuts.
