The Lancet: Oral immunotherapy reduces peanut allergy in some young children

"Landmark results from the IMPACT trial demonstrate a window of opportunity to induce peanut allergy remission in early childhood with oral immunotherapy," said Anthony S.

About 2 percent of children in the United States are allergic to peanuts, or nearly 1.

In designing the study, the IMPACT trial investigators reasoned that because oral immunotherapy has the potential to alter the immune system, providing peanut oral immunotherapy early in life may alter a child's immune response to peanut when the immune system is still developing

Nearly 150 children ages 1 to 3 participated in the IMPACT trial at five academic medical centers in the United States

Over 30 weeks, the children in the treatment group gradually increased their daily intake of peanut protein to 2 grams, which is equivalent to about 6 peanuts

Next, the children received an oral food challenge, in which they gradually increased their dose of peanut protein until they accumulated a maximum of 5 grams

Finally, the children were again challenged with 5 grams of peanut protein by mouth, equivalent to about 16 peanuts

At the end of the treatment period, 71% of the children treated with peanut flour were desensitized to peanuts, compared with only 2% of the children treated with placebo flour

The researchers found that lower levels of peanut-specific immunoglobulin E antibodies and younger age at the start of the trial were predictive of whether children would achieve remission

Although nearly all children treated with peanut flour had at least one dose-related reaction during treatment, most reactions were mild to moderate in severity

The Immune Tolerance Network conducts the trial under the leadership of Dr.

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