CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW/UVA HEALTH) – UVA Health Children’s researchers have helped conduct a real-world study of peanut oral immunotherapy in children younger than 3 which shows the approach is both safe and effective at desensitizing children to the increasingly common food allergy. A UVA Health release describes the researchers enrolled 30 peanut-allergic children in the study of what is called epOIT – Early Peanut Oral Immunotherapy. The researchers cautiously and gradually increased the dose of peanut protein the children were given. Sixteen children showed no adverse effects at all, while 12 suffered only mild hives or rash that were easily treated with antihistamines. Three children did not complete the trial, including one due to an anaphylactic reaction occurring at home. There was no placebo group in the study.

All of the 27 children who completed the study were ultimately able to consume a “maintenance dose” of 500 mg of peanut protein per day. One child even accidentally consumed about 3,000 mg of peanuts (about 40 Reese’s Pieces) and had no reaction. Eight other children were able to complete a formal peanut food challenge in the allergy clinic and are now freely eating peanut. Based on their results, the researchers are calling for larger, multicenter clinical trials to advance what could be a game-changing new treatment for peanut allergies in very young children.
Click here for the entire UVA Health release, and here for the article published in PAI.