Peanut and tree nut allergies affect approximately three million people in the United States, but UNC School of Medicine researchers might have discovered a way to cure those allergies.
A new study found that nearly 80 percent of peanut-allergic preschool children were successfully treated with peanut oral immunotherapy or OIT.
This study is the first to specifically target children younger than three years old. Previous research suggested that younger children may react better to OIT than older peanut-allergic people.
“The results of this trial are really the first evidence that seem to suggest that, in fact, that’s true that the best outcome for this type of treatment is to start it right after a patient is diagnosed, typically in the preschool years,” said Brian P. Vickery, lead investigator of the trial and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Vickery considers the findings to be a big step forward. He says that finding young children to participate was an initial concern of his when the study first began in 2008, but that the community showed overwhelming support for the research to the point that they even had to stop recruitment and turn some families away.
“The families that support our research are just amazing. They come from all over the state and are really the true pioneers in getting this done,” Vickery said.
The initial allergic reaction to peanuts commonly occurs within the first year or two of life, and the condition persists – and sometimes worsens – in 80 percent of affected patients, placing them at life-long risk of anaphylaxis.
Vickery and his team enrolled 40 peanut-allergic children aged nine months to 36 months to participate in OIT.
“We take individuals who are allergic to a food and we deliberately expose them to very small amounts of the food to eat,” said Vickery.
“Starting with, in this case for peanuts, a small fraction of one peanut and then gradually increasing the dose over time.”
After receiving OIT for about 29 months, the study participants stopped receiving it for four weeks before the “final peanut challenge,” where participants ingested a small amount of peanut in a controlled setting.
If participants showed no allergic response to peanut, doctors then reintroduced a normal portion of peanuts, such as in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“We gradually exposed the person, it changed their immune response to, in this case peanuts, and caused a shift in their clinical reactivity.”
The phase two clinical trial results, published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, show that nearly 80 percent of the children consumed peanuts with no allergic response and continued to have no allergic response after the four weeks.
Vickery says that while the results are promising, he estimates the time span to be three to five years before this type of treatment is available clinically.
“We would like to bring about the day where people have access to safe and effective treatments that are FDA approved. To do that, just like any medication that gets FDA approved, it has to be studied in thousands of people and rigorously characterized.”
Despite the exciting potential, Vickery wants to remind families that the treatment is still considered an experimental research procedure.
“I think it’s important for your [audience] to know that this is not something that should be attempted outside of a research setting. We’re still trying to really understand how it works and who it’s best for.”
The trial was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and a collaboration between the UNC School of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Vickery led the study with assistance from executive dean for the UNC School of Medicine, Wesley Burks.
But this is nothing new…. Has been around for 15 years and my daughter (along with THOUSANDS of others have already completed it. She finished 2.5 years ago. There are over 60 allergists in the US doing it in their offices. These “researchers” in the above article fail to mention that, because the study is funded by Aimmune, a pharmaceutical company that has a peanut pill coming out. But the results are actually better when done with natural, organic peanuts VS. their “frankenpeanut” pill.
My 3 boys ages 12, 8,and 8 are on week 4 of OIT and they dose daily and it works. FDA approval is not needed for food to be eaten daily. We will be done by end ond 2016 and free eating with our daily peanuts to keep us in what I like to think of as CURED.