Health

Skin patch developed with UCC researchers helps ease peanut allergy symptoms in toddlers

A new treatment could be on the horizon for the most common food allergy in Europe

There were encouraging findings from a clinical trial involving 362 young children from eight countries. Photograph: iStock
There were encouraging findings from a clinical trial involving 362 young children from eight countries. Photograph: iStock
Sat May 13 2023 - 14:38

A wearable skin patch could prevent severe allergic reactions in toddlers with peanut allergies, according to the results of a clinical trial carried out in part by researchers at University College Cork (UCC).

UCC researchers collaborated with scientists in the French biopharmaceutical firm DBV Technologies and institutions around the world to conduct a trial of a patch in young children with peanut allergies.

About 67 per cent of children from the ages of one to three who wore the patch, called Viaskin, for a year were able to safely ingest more peanut protein than when the trial began, according to findings published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The results are “very good news for toddlers and their families as the next step toward a future with more treatments for food allergies,” Alkis Togias, chief of the Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch at the US National Institutes of Health, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

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The trial found that after wearing the experimental patch, 67 per cent of children were able to tolerate 300 to 1,000 milligrams of peanut protein – the equivalent of one to four peanuts.

Peanut allergy is the most common food allergy in children in Europe, but there are limited treatment options and none that are CE-approved for children younger than four. It is estimated that only one in five children will outgrow the condition.

The standard approach for managing the allergy has long been trying to avoid peanut-based products, but accidental exposures often occur in schools, during play dates and in other settings where food and children abound.

In Ireland, the trial was led by the HRB Clinical Research Facility at UCC.

Dr Juan Trujillo, paediatric allergist in Cork University Hospital and principal investigator of the trial in Ireland, said: “These results are encouraging and give new hope to toddlers and their families who currently have no approved treatment options and who must instead focus on avoidance, which can impact quality of life.

“It is only through clinical trials we will be able to determine if new treatments are effective and safe in young patients with peanut allergies.”

[ Each year, 1,200 Irish children are diagnosed with a peanut allergy ]

The trial included 362 toddlers from eight countries, with 244 randomly assigned to wear the Viaskin patch between their shoulder blades. Anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that typically includes difficulty breathing, occurred in about 7.8% of patients who wore the patch; four of those reactions were deemed to have been related to treatment.- Additional reporting Bloomberg