Lab-made antibodies can be added to allergy shots to help cats with allergies. This may work better than traditional shots. A new study has shown that combination therapy reduced allergies symptoms up to a year after treatment was stopped.
The use of allergy shots (also known as immunotherapy) has been around for over a century to relieve symptoms such as itchy eyes, watery eyes and runny nose. The shots are a tiny amount of allergens, which is what people are allergic to. For three to five years, people receive shots every other week. They gradually increase their tolerance to the allergen.
Despite their long use, scientists don’t know exactly how allergy shots work, says Lisa Wheatley, an allergist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Some people are effectively cured of allergies while others may require shots indefinitely. “We knew that if you were on immunotherapy for cat [allergies] … you will be better after that year, but you will not retain that benefit.”
This study was conducted to determine if allergy therapy could be improved by reducing the number of shots required while still offering long-lasting relief. She also stated that the team hoped to gain a better understanding of how immunotherapy works.
Allergies can be caused by immune cells producing alarm chemicals which trigger inflammation and other symptoms. “If we could dampen the signaling that says ‘danger,’ we could maybe improve immunotherapy,” Wheatley says.
To block a certain alarm chemical known as thymic stromal lympoietin or TSLP, she used a monoclonal antibody called tezepelumab with her colleagues. It has been used to treat asthma and researchers know it is generally safe.
Researchers gave 121 cat allergy sufferers either tezepelumab alone or standard allergy shots. Researchers found that tezepelumab on its own was no better than a placebo.
After a year, patients who received the combination had recovered. Allergy symptoms are reducedResearchers report that cats who received standard shots had a higher rate of cat dander in their noses than people who got them. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
People who received the combination saw their IgE levels drop and continue to fall for a year. Wheatley says that IgE levels began to fall in standard shot recipients.
One reason the therapy may work is that it alters inflammation-triggering gene activity in some immune cells, the team found. Immune cells called mast cells made less tryptase — one of the major chemicals released in an allergic reaction — in people who got the combination therapy, an analysis of nasal swabs showed.
While the results are encouraging, it’s not clear that tezepelumab would work as well for other allergies, says Edward Zoratti, an allergist and immunologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit who was not involved in the study. “Did they just get lucky and choose the right allergen?”
Cat allergies develop against a single sticky protein called Fel d1 that is in cats’ salivaAnd in small flakes of dead skin cells.SN: 2/13/20). However, you can get Cockroach Allergies from a variety proteins.
Zoratti also mentions that monoclonal antibody prices could be a problem.
Much more research is needed before this or any other therapy is added to allergy shots in a doctor’s office, he says, but the study is important for understanding how allergy therapies work. “It’s one step in a long chain that will probably lead us to a really useful therapy in the future.”
