An experimental skin patch is being tested to treat children with peanut allergies.
INDIANAPOLIS — A new patch is currently undergoing clinical trials in Indianapolis and around the world that could help those with peanut allergies.
It's already made a massive difference for one Indianapolis family.
Like most moms, Gina Shields is protective over her 6-year-old daughter, Scarlett. When Scarlett was diagnosed with a peanut allergy as a toddler, that drive to protect her only grew stronger.
"We carry two EpiPens at all time. We read the labels of everything," Shields said.
Her family is always careful to avoid unknown foods and keep a close eye on Scarlett, hoping to fend off a dangerous, even deadly, anaphylactic reaction.
"It's pretty scary," Shields said. "When we first figured out she was allergic, it was pretty overwhelming. She was about 15 months old, and it was kind of a traumatic experience for us. It was just a lot of unknowns, like how do we keep her safe?"
Dr. Kirsten Kloepfer, associate professor of pediatrics in pulmonary allergy and sleep medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children, sees patients with severe peanut allergies at Riley just like Scarlett every day.
"The biggest question I have and a lot of researchers right now have is how to prevent this from continuing throughout their entire life and can we stop it early on," Kloepfer said.
Her work as a physician scientist has connected Kloepfer with some of the top food allergy researchers around the United States. When they reached out about a new peanut allergy patch and working with IU School of Medicine as a trial location, Kloepfer said she knew it could make a massive impact on her patients.
"It would be very nice because right now, when we diagnose someone with peanut allergy, if they're under the age of 4, we don't have any treatment options," Kloepfer said. "Right now, it's prescribing an EpiPen, warning them about reading labels, and we never know how much peanut it's going to take to produce the reaction because every child is a little different."
Conducting trial studies in young children here in Indianapolis and in 50 other locations around the world, Kloepfer said Scarlett was a great fit to test this patch.
To test it, they'd stick the patch on Scarlett's back with 1/1000th of a peanut protein inside, exposing Scarlett to low doses of peanut every day for a year. It helped.
"It's made a big difference," Shields said.
And she wasn't alone.
According to Kloepfer, their study found by the end of that year, 67% of the children on the peanut patch were able to tolerate larger doses of peanut.
"Surprised and excited that this could be a potential treatment in the future," Kloepfer said. "It is easy to put a patch on a young child rather than have them eat it, which is traditionally what we’ve been doing in other studies."
Scarlett's progress has brought a sense of relief for the Shields family.
"You always hear stories of kids who've accidentally had the Chips Ahoy with peanut butter in them and it's been fatal," Shields said. "So to know that she, if that happened, she would have this extra layer of protection."
The results of the first year of their study were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
And now, the IU School of Medicine is helping enroll children with peanut allergies between ages 4 and 7 years old for another trial of the patch.
The research they're conducting now could lead to helping many with peanut allergies down the road, Kloepfer said.
"It is nice as a physician to always be able to offer a treatment and with food allergy, we don't always have that luxury of having that treatment available other than educating avoidance and how to use an EpiPen," Kloepfer said. "This would actually give us something to help families."
Shields said her daughter was able to continue on with the study for another two years. They're grateful for the difference it's made for Scarlett's health and her quality of life.
"It's good timing, as well, because now she's in elementary school, and she's going to camps in the summer, and her environment isn't as controlled as it was when she was younger," Shields said. "So it's comforting to know we have a little bit more protection if she were to accidentally eat a peanut."
