Researchers are working on to develop peanut that could transform the eating habits of the people who have peanut allergy and that could put an end to the problem caused by the popular seed. They are trying to breed out two major proteins that caused allergy in peanut. Peanut allergy is comparatively common and causes breathing problems.
In it most serious, it can lead to possibly life threatening anaphylactic shock. In previous years the cases of peanut allergy has nearly doubled with one in fifty-five being diagnosed of it. The nuts were the first that did not engross genetic alterations. They are breeding peanuts which are missing two major allergens, explained Professor Soheila Maleki, whose team is working on the project.
The benefits of breeding low allergy peanuts are that people could consume them in childhood and therefore would become less allergic to peanut in the first place. Those who are already allergic would require having much higher dose before they suffered a reaction, she said further. Another use would be desensitizing the people who have established allergy by giving low dose of peanut over time.
The key issue would be if the peanut missing two major proteins would be able to produce naturally occurring seeds with the same reduced allergy potential. She presented her findings on nine hundred varieties of peanut at the congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in London.
Anaphylactic reactions due to peanut allergy are far more common and life-threatening than asthma attacks due to this type of allergy. However, they welcome any new approach that could help reduce the number of hospital admissions for asthma activated by allergic reaction to foods, said Leanne Metcalf, director of research at Asthma UK.