A new study published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy assessed the safety and efficacy of oral immunotherapy using sequential doses of boiled peanuts followed by roasted peanuts to treat peanut allergy in children.
Researchers conducted an open-label, phase II, single-arm clinical trial in children between the ages of 6 and 18 years with a history of peanut allergy. A total of 70 participants received oral immunotherapy with 12-hour boiled peanut for 12 weeks, 2-hour boiled peanut for 20 weeks and roasted peanut for 20 weeks, followed by a target maintenance dose of 12 roasted peanuts per day for 6 to 8 weeks. The children then underwent a supervised oral food challenge involving the administration of approximately 3,000 mg of peanut protein.
Desensitization was successfully induced in 80% of the participants. Adverse events related to the treatment were uncommon (6.6 per 1,000 doses) and mostly mild. Withdrawal from the study due to adverse events was infrequent, occurring in only 3 participants. Similarly, only 3 participants reported using rescue epinephrine due to treatment-related adverse events. These findings suggest that this form of oral immunotherapy could be an effective method of inducing desensitization with a favorable safety profile.
Grzeskowiak, L. E., Tao, B., Aliakbari, K., Chegeni, N., Morris, S., & Chataway, T. (2023). Oral immunotherapy using boiled peanuts for treating peanut allergy: An open‐label, single‐arm trial. Clinical & Experimental Allergy.