Faecal capsules cut peanut allergy in small trial — SkimNews
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- Rima Rachid led a trial at Boston Children's Hospital in which 15 adults with peanut allergy swallowed 36 capsules of faeces from a healthy donor with no food allergies in a single day.
- Six of 15 participants were able to consume more peanut without allergic reactions four months later, with most tolerating peanut flour equivalent to one whole peanut and one participant tolerating the equivalent of four peanuts.
- John Ziegler of the University of New South Wales called it too early to judge efficacy, noting the small open-label uncontrolled design meant positive responses could reflect a placebo effect.
- Rachid's team is now running a larger randomized trial in children aged 12 to 17 with peanut allergy, comparing concentrated faecal microbe capsules against placebo.
- When responders' faeces were transplanted into mice, gut bacteria called Bacteroidales increased a thousand-fold — consistent with a separate study of 1,400 Canadian children linking low Bacteroidales to peanut allergy.
- Reported side-effects — diarrhoea and abdominal pain — were mild and short-lived, though participants still must avoid peanuts and carry an EpiPen because duration of the protective effect is unknown.
Why it matters: If the ongoing placebo-controlled pediatric trial confirms this signal, a one-day faecal capsule treatment could offer an alternative to the daily oral immunotherapy regimens some peanut allergy patients find too burdensome to sustain, but peanut avoidance plus an EpiPen remains the only proven management until durability is established.
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