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New immunotherapy threshold may protect against accidental exposure in peanut-allergic individuals

LOS ANGELES — Joseph L. Baumert, PhD, from the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, discusses safety benefits linked to increased clinical peanut thresholds through immunotherapy.

Using risk modeling, Baumert and colleagues designed a study to assess the degree of protection partial desensitization would garner against accidental exposure to undeclared peanut allergens in food. Study results demonstrated that successful increase of a patient’s threshold dose to 300 mg peanut protein or more during treatment would reduce their risk of an allergic reaction significantly after consumption of a peanut-contaminated cookie.

According to Baumert, “Reaching a threshold dose of 300 mg peanut protein would be a key milestone in the immunotherapy treatment of highly peanut-sensitive individuals at very high risk of allergic reactions, as they would tolerate most trace levels of undeclared peanut protein in food products.”