A peanut powder capsule to prevent life-threatening allergic reactions to the legumes may be on the way.
Scientists said 67 percent of children who consumed daily doses of peanut powder, contained in a capsule and sprinkled over food, were able to tolerate roughly two peanuts after a year.
Peanut allergies, which affect millions of children in the US, can cause reactions that range from a runny nose to anaphylaxis – a life-threatening reaction that involves impaired breathing, swelling in the throat, a sudden drop in blood pressure.
For years, researchers have tried to come up with a cure for peanut allergies, but the peanut powder capsule is the only treatment to come close to preventing them.
Daily doses of peanut powder could prevent children from developing peanut allergies
However, researchers say the study, conducted by California-based Aimmune Therapeutics, a biotechnology company, should not be tried at home.
‘It’s potentially dangerous,’ said Dr Stacie Jones, a University of Arkansas allergy specialist and lead author of the study. ‘This is investigational. It has to be done in a very safe setting’ to make sure kids can be treated fast for any bad reactions that occur, she said.
For the study, Dr Jones and her colleagues collected data from nearly 500 children between the ages of four and 17 with peanut allergies so severe they had reactions to as little as a tenth of a peanut.
The subjects were given either capsules of peanut or a dummy powder in gradually increasing amounts for six months, then continued on that final level for another six months.
The doses start out with an amount of peanut protein equivalent to that in 1/100th of a peanut, then build up gradually over about six months to reach the amount of peanut protein in approximately one peanut, Dr Jones told Daily Mail Online.
The drug, which is contained in capsules,is opened and emptied into a small amount of food such as applesauce, yogurt or pudding, then mixed in and eaten.
Researchers found that more than two-thirds of kids who were given the experimental treatment were able to tolerate the equivalent of roughly two peanuts, compared to just four percent of kids given the placebo powder.
Dr Jones said the product showed ‘overall good safety,’ despite about 20 percent of kids who received the peanut powder dropping out of the study, 12 percent due to reactions or other problems.
‘It’s exciting,’ said Dr Stacy Dorris of Vanderbilt University who had no role in the study.
‘This is a way to potentially protect people who are allergic from having a severe or even fatal reaction. But it’s not a cure … we don’t know what would happen if they stop or discontinue’ treatment,’ she said.
This isn’t the first attempt to prevent peanut allergies, but researchers say it may be the most advanced.
The new study builds on previous research that suggests exposing children to peanuts earlier could prevent them from developing the allergy.
A 2013 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found babies at risk of becoming allergic to peanuts were 80 percent less likely to develop the allergy by their fifth birthday if they were fed four teaspoons of peanut butter each week starting when they are between four and 11 months old.
In 2017, research published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) found a skin patch developed by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York left patients 10 times more resilient to the peanut allergy.
The device was designed to gradually expose patients to the proteins that give them an allergic reaction.
Dr Andrew Bird, an allergy specialist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, also consults for the company and had patients in the current study, said the capsule treatment doesn’t allow kids to eat peanuts as if they had no allergy, but research suggests that being able to tolerate at least one peanut should protect 95 percent of them from having a reaction if they are exposed to peanuts, he said.
Aimmune plans to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment later this year and in Europe early next year.
The company’s chief executive has said he expects the first six months of treatment to cost $5,000 to $10,000, and $300 to $400 a month after that.