For children with food allergies, a trace amount of a substance can trigger deadly anaphylaxis within minutes of ingestion – the fear of which can be life altering for many families. To give hope to these patients and their families, researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine are embarking on a landmark peanut immunotherapy trial, using a process known as desensitization where patients swallow tiny, increasing amounts of peanut over time. For more information about Texas Children’s Hospital’s Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology Department, please visit http://texaschildrens.org/Locate/Departments-and-Services/Allergy-and-Immunology/.
The research team, led by Dr. Carla Davis, a specialist in the Pediatric Medicine, Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology Department at Texas Children’s and assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor, begin enrolling children with peanut allergies in the trial this month. The study will investigate the ability of peanut allergic children to take peanut flour, the mechanism by which the body develops tolerance, and measure the effect of viral infections. The goal of the trial is to find a standard of care that may lower the risk of severe allergic reactions in patients and eventually cease the allergy completely.
In Europe, a recent oral immunization trail (OIT) showed promise, and in the United States the Consortium for Food Allergy Research and Stanford University are both conducting similar studies. Presently, desensitization is not the standard of care and no study has determined the mechanism by which the body develops a tolerance. Davis and her team plan to monitor how the immunotherapy works and why, as well as develop systems to accurately identify patients who are good candidates for immunotherapy.