Heena Sharma Blog

We don’t have to live in fear anymore.” That’s the common refrain from hundreds of parents of preschoolers with peanut allergy that my colleagues and I have successfully treated with peanut “oral immunotherapy” over the past two years. Oral immunotherapy (OIT) is a treatment in which a patient consumes small amounts of an allergenic food, such as peanut, with the dose gradually increased to a target maximum (or maintenance) amount. The goal for most parents is to achieve desensitization — so their child can ingest more of the food without triggering a dangerous reaction, protecting them against accidental exposure. A recent study published in The Lancet has suggested that this treatment may make things worse for children with peanut allergies. The researchers behind the meta-analysis argue that children with peanut allergies should avoid peanuts. This study has limitations however. It did not include a single child under the age of five years old. And it runs the risk of ...

In a first, an oral immunotherapy drug derived from peanut protein could help build tolerance and eliminate potentially deadly reactions in children and adolescents with severe peanut allergies. The study showed that controlled ingestion of the medication, called AR101, derived from peanut protein, could build tolerance as well as reduce severe allergy symptoms . "Almost 6 million American children are currently living with a life-threatening food allergy," said Christina Ciaccio, Associate Professor from the University of Chicago in the US. "Every three minutes a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room, contributing to the total annual cost of caring for children with food allergy to nearly $25 billion. Despite this, not a single treatment for food allergy has been approved by the FDA," she said. However, the drug "is not a quick fix, and it doesn't mean people with peanut allergy will be able to eat peanuts when...