Patch could treat nut allergies

Chloe Menderson’s purse is always stocked with two items: Benadryl and an EpiPen.

Those products are her only defense against a peanut allergy that poses a constant risk to her health.

“It takes one time forgetting to ask at a restaurant if there are peanuts in your meal to be in danger,” said Menderson, 20. “You might ask every day of your life and then just not remember one day.”

A peanut allergy study that’s underway could help eliminate that risk. The research aims to desensitize people allergic to peanuts through a patch containing a peanut protein. The study, sponsored by French bio-pharmaceutical firm DBV Technologies, is being conducted worldwide.

Currently, there is no method to combat the condition. Symptoms can range from a minor irritation to a life-threatening reaction.

About 3 million Americans said Marshall Plaut, chief of food allergy, atopic dermatitis and allergic mechanisms at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

That condition remains the greatest concern among clinicians who treat patients with food allergies, he said.

“It’s the one associated with the highest rate of life-threatening allergic reactions and even death,” Plaut said.

Enrollment for the study was completed this July, and the data are expected to be fully collected by July 2014.

It will take a few years to determine whether the patch is effective, said Amal Assa’ad, the primary investigator of the study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The study’s ultimate goal is to make people with a peanut allergy tolerant of peanuts, even if they were to stop wearing the patch, Assa’ad said.

“If we achieve that, and with safety, it will have a really big impact,” she said.