Successful trials of food allergy vaccine on dogs

With approximately 15 million people suffering from allergies in the UK (roughly 30% of adults and 40% of children), the news that researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in the US are testing a food allergy vaccine will come as exciting news to many sufferers.

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Trials have been carried out on dogs with peanut, milk and wheat allergies and it was found that the vaccine made the dogs up to 100 times less susceptible to developing an allergic reaction.

Ten weeks after the dogs were vaccinated, significantly greater amounts of the allergen had to be used to generate an allergic reaction, with one peanut allergic dog with a tolerance of 0.5 peanut going up to 57 peanuts without any reaction.

This is the first time that an allergy vaccine of any kind has been tried on anything other than mice, however Allergy UK has cautioned people not to get too excited as animal studies do not always translate well to human beings. The Anaphylaxis Campaign are speculating that it will be several years yet before human trials take place.

So while the creation of a food allergy vaccine is not just around the corner for use for humans, ultimately when it is available it will save lives and reduce the misery felt by millions of food allergy sufferers.