Could a skin patch treat peanut allergies? What new research tells us – National | 24CA News
An experimental pores and skin patch is displaying promise to deal with toddlers who’re extremely allergic to peanuts – coaching their our bodies to deal with an unintentional chew.
Peanut allergy is among the commonest and harmful meals allergy symptoms. Parents of allergic tots are consistently on guard towards exposures that may flip birthday events and play dates into emergency room visits.
There isn’t any treatment. The solely remedy is for youngsters 4 and older who can devour a particular peanut powder to guard towards a extreme response.
The patch, named Viaskin, goals to ship that form of remedy by the pores and skin as a substitute. In a serious check with children ages 1 to three, it helped those that couldn’t tolerate even a small fraction of a peanut to ultimately safely eat a number of, researchers reported Wednesday.
If extra testing pans out, “this would fill a huge unmet need,” stated Dr. Matthew Greenhawt, an allergist at Children’s Hospital Colorado who helped lead the research.
About 2 per cent of U.S. youngsters are allergic to peanuts, some so severely than even a tiny quantity may cause a life-threatening response. Their immune system overreacts to peanut-containing meals, triggering an inflammatory cascade that causes hives, wheezing or worse. Some children outgrow the allergy however most should keep away from peanuts for all times and carry rescue drugs to stave off a extreme response in the event that they by chance ingest some.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration accepted the primary remedy to induce tolerance to peanuts -_ an “oral immunotherapy” named Palforzia that youngsters ages 4 to 17 devour each day to maintain up the safety. Aimmune Therapeutics’ Palforzia is also being examined in toddlers.
France’s DBV Technologies is pursuing skin-based immunotherapy as a substitute approach to desensitize the physique to allergens.
The Viaskin patch is coated with a small quantity of peanut protein that’s absorbed into the pores and skin. A each day patch is worn between the shoulder blades, the place toddlers can’t pull it off.
In the brand new research, 362 toddlers with peanut allergy first have been examined to see how excessive a dose of peanut protein they might tolerate. Then they have been randomly assigned to make use of the Viaskin patch or a lookalike dummy patch day-after-day.
After a 12 months of remedy, they have been examined once more and about two-thirds of the toddlers who used the true patch might safely ingest extra peanuts, the equal of three to 4, researchers concluded.
That compares to a few third of children given the dummy patches. Greenhawt stated they doubtless embrace youngsters who’re outgrowing the allergy.
As for security, 4 Viaskin recipients skilled an allergic response referred to as anaphylaxis that was deemed associated to the patch. Three have been handled with epinephrine to calm the response, and one dropped out of the research.
Some children additionally by chance ate peanut-containing meals throughout the research, and researchers stated allergic reactions have been much less frequent among the many Viaskin customers than these sporting the dummy patches. The commonest facet impact was pores and skin irritation on the patch website.
The findings have been revealed within the New England Journal of Medicine.
The outcomes “are very good news for toddlers and their families as the next step toward a future with more treatments for food allergies,” Dr. Alkis Togias of the National Institutes of Health, which wasn’t concerned with the research, wrote in an accompanying editorial.
Togias cautioned that it’s too early to check oral and pores and skin remedies, however pointed to knowledge suggesting every may need completely different execs and cons _ elevating the likelihood that oral remedy could be stronger but additionally trigger extra negative effects.
DBV Technologies has struggled for a number of years to deliver the peanut patch to market. Last month the corporate introduced the FDA needs some extra security knowledge for toddlers, and a separate research already is monitoring longer remedy. A research of 4- to 7-year-olds is also underway.
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© 2023 The Canadian Press
