Drug dramatically reduces kids’ life-threatening reactions to food allergen traces

A new study shows that an injectable drug used for decades to treat asthma significantly reduces potentially life-threatening reactions in children with allergies exposed to trace amounts of peanuts, eggs, milk and cashews. Reduced.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier this month approved omalizumab, sold as Xolair, to treat severe food allergies in certain adults and children over 1 year of age. This injection is the first drug to reduce allergic reactions to multiple foods after accidental exposure.

The study was published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology annual meeting.

“Food allergy patients’ daily lives are driven by the fear of accidental exposure to food allergens,” said Eudo Wood, chief of the Department of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and principal investigator of the study. said author Robert Wood. said in a statement. “Our findings are extremely meaningful and potentially even life-changing for people with food allergies.”

The study found that nearly 67 percent of participants who completed antibody treatment (79 of 118 treated children and adolescents) could eat the equivalent of 2.5 peanuts without experiencing a moderate or severe allergic reaction. Initially it was less than half a peanut, but it has increased.

This process yielded similar results for eggs, milk, wheat, cashews, walnuts, and hazelnuts.

In this study, researchers compared the effects of Xolair injections every 2 to 4 weeks for 16 to 20 weeks to placebo injections.

The study enrolled 177 children under the age of 17 with a history of peanut allergy and at least two other food allergies, including cashews, milk, eggs, walnuts, wheat, and hazelnuts. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive omalizumab or placebo.

The only other drugs approved for food allergies are oral immunotherapy regimens (OIT). This involves consuming a specific food allergen each day in gradually increasing doses up to a maintenance dose.

Currently, people with severe food allergies must avoid foods that can cause a reaction and keep medications such as epinephrine on hand. Still, accidental exposure can be difficult to avoid, especially for children. People with food allergies and their caregivers must remain vigilant at all times.

People taking Xolair should avoid foods to which they are allergic. This treatment is not designed to allow patients to eat all foods freely. It simply requires higher levels of food to cause an allergic reaction.

Jeanne Marazzo, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: “Food avoidance remains important, but the findings reported today show that medicines can reduce the risk of allergic reactions to common foods and reduce the risk of accidental allergic reactions. “This shows that it may be possible to protect against emergencies caused by severe exposure.” , the primary sponsor of the study.

Up to 17 million children and adults in the United States suffer from food allergies. It is estimated that more than 40 percent of children and more than half of adults with food allergies experience at least one severe reaction, and that 30,000 people have medical emergencies due to food-related anaphylaxis. I am. Incidents handled in emergency rooms in the United States occur every year.