New Peanut Flour May Be Better Suited To Desensitizing People To Peanuts

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a modified peanut flour that could be used to safely desensitize people who are allergic to peanuts. The new flour contains allergens called epitopes, as well as natural edible fruit polyphenols, and could replace the peanut flour currently used to desensitize people to dangerous peanut allergies, because the flour is itself dangerous, producing severe side effects. Polyphenols in the newly developed flour alter the epitopes so that they do not trigger an allergic response in the patient. But they still cause enough of an immune system reaction to slowly desensitize the person to peanuts. The researchers said the flour could also be adapted to treat other kinds of food allergens.