Doctors and parents have hailed a potentially "life-transforming" breakthrough in allergy treatment after early trial results showed that eating small amounts of trigger foods could build up immunity in children.
Five hospitals have so far joined a £2.5million clinical trial set up in memory of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died in 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction to sesame baked into a Pret baguette.
Natasha, 15, from Fulham, was travelling with her father and a school friend from London to Nice when she collapsed during a British Airways flight. She had bought the sandwich in a Pret a Manger shop at Heathrow airport, but a food labelling loophole left her unaware that the baguette contained sesame seeds.
Since Natasha's death, her parents Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse set up the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation with the hope of curing allergies through research.
The new clinical oral immunotherapy (OIT) trial is using small doses of everyday foods to train the bodies of children and young people to tolerate an allergen. All foods are given under medical supervision.
If successful, the three-year trial could provide more evidence for everyday foods treatment to be made available on the NHS and allow children with food allergies to live without the fear of a potentially fatal reaction.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs several hospitals and clinics in west and central London, is among those taking part in the trial.
Sibel Sonmez-Ajtai, paediatric allergy consultant and principal investigator at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This study is enabling us to do something we would never have dreamed of doing before – giving patients the foods we know they are allergic to.
“This treatment is not a cure for a food allergy, but what it achieves is life-transforming.
“To have a patient who has had anaphylaxis to 4mls of milk to then tolerate 90mls within six to eight months is nothing less than a miracle.”
Full results from the trial are not expected until 2027.
Mrs Ednan-Laperouse said: “If Natasha were alive today, this is exactly the type of research she would have loved to be part of.
“This is a major first step in our mission to make food allergies history. We look forward to seeing the final results.”
Thomas Farmer, 11, who was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when he was one, can now eat six peanuts a day after joining the trial in Southampton.
His mother Lauren said: “Knowing that Thomas can now tolerate six peanuts a day has taken away so much anxiety around food.
“It will also hopefully mean that he will be able to eat a wider variety of food as we won’t be so concerned about accidental exposure."
