Cracking the Code of Peanut Allergies?

Have scientists found the key to eliminating peanut allergies? It seems that way even though the initial study sample size was extremely small.

The findings, presented on Sunday at a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Washington, suggest that a treatment for peanut allergy may be developed in two or three years, said Dr. Wesley Burks, the chief of the division of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, who helped conduct the research.

An estimated 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies, including about 2.2 million children. About 3.3 million people are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts. While drugs can be used to treat an allergic reaction, there are no approved treatments for food allergies.

Because even a minor exposure can set off a reaction, many people at risk strictly avoid foods that contain an allergen or were prepared in places where nuts or other allergens might have been used. Symptoms range from mild stomach or skin reactions to a constriction of the airways.

Nearly half of the 150 deaths attributed to food allergies each year in the United States are caused by peanut allergies, according to Duke University.

The new treatment uses doses of peanuts that start as small as one-thousandth of a peanut and eventually increase to about 15 peanuts a day. In a pilot study at Duke University and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, 33 children with documented peanut allergy have received the daily therapy, which is given as a powder sprinkled on food. Most of the children are tolerating the therapy without developing allergic reactions, and five stopped the treatment after two and a half years because they could now tolerate peanuts in their regular diet. But four children dropped out because they could not tolerate the treatment.

If this treatment pans out, it could save families the heartbreak of losing children to a deadly allergy. However, it will require far more study and confirmation that the treatment options will succeed in preventing allergic reactions that can result in anaphylaxis and death.