Asthma drug may help food allergies

An asthma drug could be used to stop people suffering allergic reactions to food, a study suggests.

A trial found a monthly jab of omalizumab increases tolerance of an allergen and could be used as a way to prevent reactions to accidental exposure to a small amount of food.

Sufferers avoid eating foods they are allergic to, such as milk, peanuts or eggs, but a small amount of cross-contamination can still be enough to trigger a reaction.

Severe allergies can lead to anaphylaxis, hospitalisation and even death from just a few grams of a certain food product.

A study from Stanford University found that the drug omalizumab, which is already used to treat asthma, is effective at increasing tolerance in allergic people.

More than 100 people with allergies to peanuts and two other foods were recruited for a study and two-thirds of them were given a fortnightly or monthly injection of the drug, while the rest got a placebo.

Four months later, the participants were exposed to the foods they are allergic to and two-thirds of those who took the drug were able to have 300 milligrams of peanuts without having a reaction. Previously, they had suffered signs of a reaction after just 100 milligrams.

Almost half of the participants could have all three of the foods they were allergic to, at small levels, without a reaction.

“I’m excited that we have a promising new treatment for multifood allergic patients,” said Dr Sharon Chinthrajah, the study’s senior author at Stanford Medicine.

The results indicated the drug worked not only on peanut allergies, but likely also on a range of allergens simultaneously, making it a potentially highly versatile medicine.

The FDA in the United States has approved the drug for use to prevent allergic reactions there, but there has been no decision by the MHRA for Britain.

The drug works by binding to and deactivating all types of immunoglobulin E, or IgE, which is the allergy-causing molecule in the blood and on the body’s immune cells.

“Patients impacted by food allergies face a daily threat of life-threatening reactions due to accidental exposures,” added lead author Dr Robert Wood, a professor of paediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. “The study showed that omalizumab can be a layer of protection against small, accidental exposures.”

The drug is known to be well tolerated in older children and adults and this study showed no side-effects of concern for children as young as 1 year.

However, the scientists are seeking out more information on precisely how the drug works to prevent allergic reactions in a bid to find other drugs that could be more effective.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. – Telegraph Group