A clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health has found that giving peanut oral immunotherapy to highly peanut-allergic children ages one to three years safely desensitized most of them to peanuts and induced remission of peanut allergy in one-fifth. The results of the trial, co-led by Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researcher Stacie Jones, MD, are published in the journal The Lancet. Nearly 150 children ages one to three years participated in the IMPACT trial at five sites. Only children who had an allergic reaction after eating half a gram of peanut protein (about 1.5 peanuts) or less were eligible to join the study.
The immunotherapy studied consisted of a daily oral dose of peanut protein flour for 2.5 years. Remission was defined as being able to eat five grams of peanut protein, equivalent to approximately 16 peanuts, without having an allergic reaction six months after completing immunotherapy. The youngest children and those who started the trial with lower levels of peanut-specific antibodies were most likely to achieve remission.
Jones, director of the Arkansas Children’s Food Allergy Program and a UAMS professor of pediatrics practicing at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH), served as protocol co-chair for the trial.
“The findings from the IMPACT Trial are important and showed that intervening early in the life of a peanut-allergic child may be more effective than intervening later in life. Specifically, a subset of study participants were able to safely consume 16 peanuts without symptoms at the end of the study. We are beyond grateful to the children and families who took a risk to be a part of the studies that led to this discovery,” Jones said. “Their contribution is huge and helps us lay the groundwork for a new therapy that may eventually help young children with peanut allergy live with less risk every day.”
“In addition to the desensitization we saw in a majority of peanut-allergic children, we also saw a promising number of children whose peanut tolerability did not reach our threshold for remission but still increased significantly after treatment,” Jones said. “We are tremendously excited that some of this work happened at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, underscoring our commitment to discoveries that have life-changing potential for families.”