Peanut Oral Immunotherapy Found Effective in Children

A clinical trial funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the journal The Lancet on January 22, 2022, found that giving peanut oral immunotherapy to highly peanut-allergic children safely desensitized most of them to peanut and induced remission of peanut allergy in 20%.

The immunotherapy consisted of a daily oral dose of peanut flour for 2.5 years.

In this phase 2 study, remission was defined as eating 5 grams of peanut protein, equivalent to 1.5 tablespoons of peanut butter, without having an allergic reaction six months after completing immunotherapy.

The youngest children (1 to 3 years) and those who started the trial with lower levels of peanut-specific antibodies were most likely to achieve remission.

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, stated in a related press release, “It is our hope that these study findings will inform the development of treatment modalities that reduce the burden of peanut allergy in children.”

Peanut allergy affects about 2% of children in the U.S., or nearly 1.5 million individuals ages 17 years and younger.

The risk of a life-threatening allergic reaction to accidentally eaten peanuts is significant for these children, most of whom remain peanut-allergic for life.

The trial results, called IMPACT, are available at this NIH link.