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Treatment for Peanut Allergies Shows Promise |
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 Treatment for Peanut Allergies Shows Promise
Source: NYT By TARA PARKER-POPE Date: 3/23/09
A medically supervised daily dose of peanuts may help children with peanut allergies greatly increase their tolerance to the food, according to two new studies that raise the possibility of a cure for this potentially life-threatening condition.
The
findings, presented on Sunday at a meeting of the American Academy of
Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Washington, suggest that a treatment
for peanut allergy may be developed in two or three years, said Dr.
Wesley Burks, the chief of the division of pediatric allergy and
immunology at Duke University Medical Center, who helped conduct the
research.
An
estimated 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies, including
about 2.2 million children. About 3.3 million people are allergic to
peanuts or tree nuts. While drugs can be used to treat an allergic
reaction, there are no approved treatments for food allergies.
Because
even a minor exposure can set off a reaction, many people at risk
strictly avoid foods that contain an allergen or were prepared in
places where nuts or other allergens might have been used. Symptoms
range from mild stomach or skin reactions to a constriction of the
airways.
Nearly
half of the 150 deaths attributed to food allergies each year in the
United States are caused by peanut allergies, according to Duke
University.
The
new treatment uses doses of peanuts that start as small as
one-thousandth of a peanut and eventually increase to about 15 peanuts
a day. In a pilot study at Duke University and Arkansas Children’s
Hospital in Little Rock, 33 children with documented peanut allergy
have received the daily therapy, which is given as a powder sprinkled
on food. Most of the children are tolerating the therapy without
developing allergic reactions, and five stopped the treatment after two
and a half years because they could now tolerate peanuts in their
regular diet. But four children dropped out because they could not
tolerate the treatment.
In
a related study of just 18 children, the researchers gave the treatment
to 12 children and a placebo powder to 6. After 10 months, the children
were given a medically supervised test exposing them to peanuts. In the
placebo group, the children developed symptoms after ingesting the
equivalent of one and a half peanuts. In the treatment group, the
children tolerated 15 peanuts without symptoms.
Far
more study is needed before the treatment can be used outside of a
research setting, Dr. Burks said. The Duke/Arkansas study plans to
enroll at least 80 children in the next few years to assess the
treatment.
Researchers
in Britain have reported similar results in small studies in which
children were given daily peanut doses. The Consortium of Food Allergy
Research, which includes five major research centers in the United
States and is financed by the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, is conducting similar treatment studies for both
egg and peanut allergies.
Dr.
Burks said that the children in the studies were under a high level of
medical supervision, and that parents should not try the approach on
their own.
"These
studies do give us hope that there will be a treatment in the next two
or three years," said Dr. Burks. "It's not something to do in practice
or at home yet."
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