ATLANTA, Ga. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – More than five and a half million kids have a food allergy – that’s about one in 13 kids, or one or two kids in every single classroom. Even though more than 170 foods have been reported to cause allergies – eggs, milk, and peanuts are the most common. Recently, the FDA approved an oral treatment for older children with peanut allergies, but there was no treatment for children under the age of four, until now. Childhood Allergies
If you can strum it, pound it, build it, throw it, or swing on it, that’s where you’ll find five-year-old Kaleb Billeter – not a care in the world – but it wasn’t always like this.
“When Kaleb was six-months-old, he broke out into hives all over his chest, torso, face,” Kaleb’s mother, Elizabeth, or Liz, painfully remembers.
A skin test proved Kaleb was allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs.
Pediatric allergist at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Dr. Brian Vickery says, until now, there was very little they could do to help children like Kaleb.
“What we’ve been studying is to expose patients to small bits of what they’re allergic to, to change their immune responses. And what’s exciting is that, you can actually do this through the skin,” Dr. Vickery tells Ivanhoe.
It’s called epicutaneous immunotherapy, or EPIT.
Dr. Vickery explains, “Peanut proteins are coated on the underside of a small patch that’s about the size of a nickel or a quarter. Then, immune cells in the skin are actually able to pick up the allergenic protein and deliver it to the immune system to give it instructions on how to respond to peanut allergen.”
Children wear the patch for a half an hour a day, and then increase it until eventually, it’s worn 24/7.
“This is not a cure, this does not reverse the allergy and make it go away completely, it just lessens the sensitivity levels,” Dr. Vickery reiterates.
Kaleb doesn’t need the patch anymore, but he does eat a half a teaspoon of peanut butter a day, and now he can do this without having an allergic reaction.
Fun fact: according to Harvard Medical School, peanuts are not nuts, they are actually legumes because they are seeds that grow into pods. But peanuts are not the only food allergy being studied by using a patch – milk and egg patches are also in clinical trials, and doctors believe this is just the beginning and patches could be used for multiple allergens in the coming years. Childhood Allergies
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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Sources:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/legume-of-the-month-peanuts
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: PEANUT PATCH: FIGHTING CHILDHOOD ALLERGIES
REPORT: MB #5260
BACKGROUND: Peanut allergies in children are a common and potentially serious health concern. A peanut allergy is an immune system response to the proteins found in peanuts, and it can cause a range of symptoms, from mild to severe, upon exposure. The prevalence of peanut allergies has been on the rise over the past few decades. It is estimated that approximately 1-2% of children in the U.S. have a peanut allergy. Peanut allergies often develop early in life. Most children who have a peanut allergy experience their first allergic reaction to peanuts between the ages of 1 and 2 years old.
(Sources: https://acaai.org/allergies/allergic-conditions/food/peanut/
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/acaai/76459
DIAGNOSING: The symptoms of a peanut allergy can vary from mild to severe and can include skin reactions, gastrointestinal symptoms, runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath, and cardiovascular symptoms. Children with a family history of allergies, especially peanut allergies, are at a higher risk of developing a peanut allergy themselves. Other risk factors include having other allergic conditions like eczema or asthma. Diagnosing a peanut allergy in children involves a combination of medical history, physical examination, and allergy testing. Skin prick tests and blood tests can help identify if a child has an allergic response to peanuts.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peanut-allergy/symptoms-causes/syc-20376175
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3863850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8670606/
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Research from a pediatric allergist from Emory University & Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has recently discovered the promising treatments of epicutaneous immunotherapy for children It is a potential treatment approach for peanut allergies that involves the administration of small amounts of peanut allergens through the skin. The goal of EPIT is to desensitize the immune system to peanut proteins gradually, thereby reducing the severity of allergic reactions upon peanut exposure.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Kelly Thompson
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