A skin patch has shown promise for treating young children with severe peanut allergies by training their bodies to deal with absorption of the allergen.
- A patch has been developed to desensitize children with peanut allergy.
- The product showed promising results in a phase 3 clinical trial.
- Children who wear this patch called Viaskin, gradually receive minimal doses of peanut allergen. This allows them to be desensitized or show less severe symptoms when they eat peanuts.
Peanut allergy is one of the most common food allergies in France. And it is all the more worrying when it is a toddler who suffers from it, because he has not yet acquired the reflex and / or the ability to ask the composition of the dishes before eating them.
A skin patch, called Viaskin, may help treat food allergy by retraining the immune system to increase its tolerance to peanuts.
Food allergy: a skin patch to desensitize children under 3 years old
The patch placed on the skin of children was developed to gradually deliver doses of peanuts into the body of the little ones in order to desensitize them. It contains 250 mcg of peanut protein, which is 1/1000th of a peanut.
To assess the performance of the device developed by the French biopharmaceutical company DBV Technologies, 362 children aged 1 to 3 were brought together. Some of them had the new patch, while the other had a placebo.
“After one year of treatment, it resulted in statistically superior desensitization to placebo, with treatment response rates of 67.0% and 33.5%, respectively”details the communicated published at the end of this phase 3 clinical trial.
The results also show that the product leads to “greater desensitization than placebo, sufficient to decrease the likelihood of an allergic reaction following accidental peanut exposure”.
In addition, after a year of treatment, the little participants had less severe reactions upon contact with the allergen.
Anti-allergy patch: few side effects
The patch which desensitizes children to peanut allergens was well tolerated by the majority of participants. There were a low number of adverse effects: four Viaskin recipients experienced an allergic reaction related to the patch. Three were treated with epinephrine to relieve symptoms and one dropped out of the study.
“I see peanut allergic patients in my office every day. I talk to parents who are increasingly feeling more anxious and seeing their quality of life diminished for fear of life-threatening reactions”explained Dr. Matthew Greenhawt and lead author of the article presented in the New England Journal of Medicine May 11, 2023. “This publication shows that, if approved, the Viaskin Peanut patch can bring new hope to young children and their families who currently have no approved treatment options and must instead rely on avoidance, which can have a significant impact on their quality of life”concludes the expert.
