One of the most common sources of severe and often fatal allergic reaction is the humble peanut. An estimated 1-3% of the population is allergic to peanuts. There are currently no approved treatments, and management of peanut allergy involves eliminating peanuts from the diet and treating reactions due to accidental exposures with antihistamines and epinephrine. Avoidance of peanuts altogether is often difficult, and approximately 40% of patients with food allergies present with reactions due to accidental exposures each year.

One treatment option available for food allergies is oral immunotherapy, which requires patients to eat tiny, gradually escalating doses of their food-allergy triggers under medical supervision. Desensitizing someone to their allergens with oral immunotherapy takes six months to a year, and can cause allergic reactions along the way.

In a new development published in JCI Insight an antibody injection allows people who have severe peanut allergies to eat nuts without complications.   Interleukin -33 (IL-33), an immune signaling molecule found in high levels in participants with allergic disorders, is thought to mediate allergic reactions. Typically, when a person with peanut allergies eats the food, IL-33 is activated and causes a signaling cascade leading to an allergic reaction.  In this study the antibody treatment, called etokimab, worked by interfering with the function of IL-33 molecule. The study provides early evidence that the antibody is a safe, effective and rapid food allergy treatment. The study found that 73% of the people who received a single injection of the antibody could eat nuts safely after two weeks.

Overall, the results of this clinical study are promising. They suggest that etokimab is safe and well tolerated and that a single dose of etokimab could have the potential to desensitize peanut-allergic participants. However since this was only a pilot study with small number of patients, larger and longer studies with multiple etokimab doses in food-allergic individuals are warranted.