Allergies, Author Interviews / 29.12.2017
Oral Immunotherapy With Omalizmuab Resulted in Faster Food Desensitization
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sandra Andorf PhD
Kim and Ping Li Director of Computational Biology
Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University
Instructor, Nadeau Lab
Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Food allergies are on the rise in the world. Approximately 15 million Americans have food allergies, which includes around 6 million children. Of people with food allergies, 30-40% are allergic to more than one food and therefore these people have a greater risk for an accidental ingestion resulting in an allergic reaction or anaphylaxis.
Currently there is no FDA approved treatment for food allergies but oral immunotherapy, a treatment in which the patient eats small but slowly increasing doses of their allergen until they can tolerate a specified dose, was shown in research settings to be safe in children and adults for up to 5 foods in parallel.
In this trial, we studied the efficacy and safety of Omalizmuab (an anti-IgE drug) treatment with oral immunotherapy in multifood allergic participants versus placebo with oral immunotherapy for a total of 9 months. We found that 83% of the participants who received Omalizumab could tolerate at least 2 g of at least two different food allergens at the end of the trial compared to 33% of those who received placebo. The participants that received Omalizumab were also desensitized faster, meaning they were on average able to eat 2 g of each of their allergic foods earlier in the treatment. Furthermore, we could show that the use of Omalizumab and the fast updosing is safe.
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