The National Institutes of Health is touting results of a study it sponsored investigating a skin patch designed to treat peanut allergy. The device, called Viaskin Peanut, was developed by DBV Technologies, a company based in the suburbs of Paris, France. It delivers a small amount of peanut protein through the skin, training the immune system to deal with the allergen so that it can handle accidental eating of peanut-based products in the future.
The results come from a year of following three groups of volunteers that are allergic to peanuts. One group received a placebo, while two other groups received 100 and 250 microgram daily doses via the patch. The “volunteers” were between the ages of four and 25 and their reactions to peanuts were gauged before the start of the trial. Following the trial, the researchers compared how well the participants tolerated peanut protein in quantities ten times what they were able to injest before. Almost fifty percent of the participants in the two groups that actually received peanut protein through the skin were able to tolerate the high amount of peanut protein, while only 12 percent in the placebo group were able to do the same.
The study still goes on and we expect further results to come out as time progresses. In the meantime, the initial results are very encouraging and give hope to kids allergic to peanuts and their parents that this malady may soon be treatable.
From the study abstract in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology:
In this multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, 74 participants with peanut allergy (ages 4-25 years) were treated with placebo (n = 25), Viaskin Peanut 100 μg (VP100; n = 24) or Viaskin Peanut 250 μg (VP250; n = 25; DBV Technologies, Montrouge, France). The primary outcome was treatment success after 52 weeks, which was defined as passing a 5044-mg protein oral food challenge or achieving a 10-fold or greater increase in successfully consumed dose from baseline to week 52. Adverse reactions and mechanistic changes were assessed.
At week 52, treatment success was achieved in 3 (12%) placebo-treated participants, 11 (46%) VP100 participants, and 12 (48%) VP250 participants (P = .005 and P = .003, respectively, compared with placebo; VP100 vs VP250, P = .48). Median change in successfully consumed doses were 0, 43, and 130 mg of protein in the placebo, VP100, and VP250 groups, respectively (placebo vs VP100, P = .014; placebo vs VP250, P = .003). Treatment success was higher among younger children (P = 0.03; age, 4-11 vs >11 years). Overall, 14.4% of placebo doses and 79.8% of VP100 and VP250 doses resulted in reactions, predominantly local patch-site and mild reactions (P = .003). Increases in peanut-specific IgG4 levels and IgG4/IgE ratios were observed in peanut EPIT-treated participants, along with trends toward reduced basophil activation and peanut-specific TH2 cytokines.
Study in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: Epicutaneous immunotherapy for the treatment of peanut allergy in children and young adults…
Product page: Viaskin Peanut…
Via: NIH…
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