Cure for nut allergies is 'a step closer'.

SCIENTISTS are one step closer to curing nut allergies following the success of a clinical trial.

Experts gave small daily doses of peanut flour to children with severe peanut allergy to help build tolerance to the nuts and, by the end of the trial, the children could eat up to 12 nuts a day without suffering a life-threatening reaction in the form of anaphylaxis.

Although the study was small, the Cambridge-based team said it represents the world's first successful peanut desensitisation programme.

Consultant Andrew Clark, who led the research, said further studies were planned to look at other types of nuts and other foods that seem to fuel an increase in food allergies.

Mr Clark said his team were "definitely" one step closer to finding a cure for food allergies, which he said were on the rise.

In the latest study, published in the journal Allergy, four children were given peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) to help build tolerance to peanut protein.

Mr Clark said: "At the moment we know that if they continue to eat five peanuts a day, their tolerance is maintained.

"If they were to stop, then there is some evidence that tolerance would be lost and they may have a reaction."

Mr Clark said the children would be followed for the next three or four years to monitor their tolerance levels and future studies would assess whether the dose could be given as a daily pill.