Sublingual Immunotherapy for Peanut Allergy: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Multicenter Trial (CoFAR)

Treatment for food allergy

The prevalence of IgE-mediated food allergy is an increasing public health concern effecting millions of persons worldwide. The current standard of treatment is strict avoidance of the offending food or foods, and to date, there are no regulatory approved treatments for food allergy. A significant amount of research has been directed at various forms of food immunotherapy, including oral, sublingual, and epicutaneous delivery routes. Although oral immunotherapy has shown the greatest promise for efficacy in terms of the amount of protein that can be ingested, it has also demonstrated less tolerability and a less favorable safety profile compared with sublingual immunotherapy and epicutaneous immunotherapy, which offers the least protection but has the best safety and tolerability profile. Studies have been conducted with adding adjuvants and anti-IgE to enhance either the efficacy or safety of food immunotherapy. Multiple concepts of food immunotherapy beyond these first-generation treatments are in either animal or early phase 1 studies.

Peanut oral immunotherapy: is it ready for clinical practice?

The prevalence of peanut allergy in the United States and other Westernized countries has tripled in the past 15 years, now affecting more than 1% of the population. Strict peanut avoidance is the current standard of care. In the past decade, a number of small, largely uncontrolled clinical trials have suggested that oral immunotherapy (OIT) can effectively desensitize most children with peanut allergy. Some in the allergy community now feel that OIT is ready for clinical practice. In this review, the evidence base in the medical literature is examined. Although peanut OIT shows promise, the evidence currently available on its effectiveness, risk benefit, and potential long-term consequences is insufficient to support its use in clinical practice. Appropriately designed, prospective clinical trials are urgently needed to determine whether OIT is a safe, effective form of therapy for food allergy.