Oral Immunotherapy Dampens But May Not Cure Peanut Allergy

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Food Allergies on March 3, 2007

Remember that peanut-desensitization trial I wrote about last year, wherein they fed peanut-allergic children with peanut flour? Seems like the initial results are out.

Five of seven children with severe peanut allergy were able, after two years of immunotherapy, to tolerate a dose of 7.8 grams of peanut flour, equivalent to eating more than 13 peanuts, reported Scott David Nash, M.D., of Duke in Durham, N.C., and colleagues.

"Peanut oral immunotherapy, we feel, is safe and effective for peanut-allergic patients, and we feel that our immunologic findings for peanut oral immunotherapy are similar to what we find for other forms of oral immunotherapy," Dr. Nash said.

Still the results also issued a caveat that these data should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication. And again, like I've said, please do not try this at home. These kids were under strict medical supervision and monitoring during the trial. In fact, one patient did have a reaction, including stridor, that required epinephrine. While the data seems promising, this does not give us parents of peanut-allergic children the license to relax and be less careful.