TAMPA, Fla. — Up until now, if you were allergic to a certain type of food, the most you could do was try and avoid it. Avoiding peanut butter or peanuts is pretty cut and dry if you have a peanut allergy, but avoiding foods that could contain nuts can be difficult and potentially deadly.
“As an adult, if you’re allergic to shrimp, it’s pretty easy to avoid shrimp, right? But as a child, if you’re allergic to peanuts or tree nuts, it’s much harder to avoid that,” said Dr. Thomas Casale, a USF professor of medicine.
Cross-contamination at a restaurant or a child’s birthday is a big reason why. Even the smallest amount of allergen can be severe or even deadly.
That’s why a monoclonal antibody treatment called Xolair is so promising. It’s been around since 2003, treating allergies, asthma, chronic hives and nasal polyps.
Casale has studied this type of monoclonal antibody for 30 years.
“We always thought that it would work for food allergy, and there were some studies done over 20 years ago that indicated it probably would, but this is the first big definitive trial to show that it did work,” he said.
That study included 168 adults and children at least a year old.
“When you treat with this monoclonal antibody, it’s not like you can eat whatever you’re allergic to with impunity,” he said.
The goal was to prove Xolair could allow people the ability to tolerate at least 600 mg of peanut protein, or about 2.5 peanuts. The drug proved to help a majority of the participants. It can be given every two to four weeks to prevent a reaction from happening. But, if you get it, it will be a lifelong commitment.
“All monoclonal antibodies, it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking for food allergy, or for asthma or for whatever, they work as long as you give them, and once you stop them, you’re right back where you were,” said Dr. Casale.
About 32 million Americans suffer from food allergies, according to Casale. He said if you treated every single person, it would cost about 1 trillion. It’s why he believes it will most likely be reserved for severe cases.
“The number one candidate is probably going to be individuals that have very severe allergies, have difficulty avoiding that allergen and I think individuals who have more risk factors,” he said.
Casale said it will likely be several months before official guidelines for administering the drug are published.
