Vaccine for cat allergies is in the pipeline

April 7th, 2011 - 1:42 am ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

New York, April 6 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Scientists are working to come out with a new vaccine that could take away cat allergies. Researchers who worked on the new vaccine say the product is not ready yet but they indicated that it is safe.

The research was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The researchers announced that they managed to develop the vaccine after isolating the protein that causes the allergy. After successfully extracting the protein, they took blood sample from people known to have cat allergies. The scientists successfully created seven synthetic peptides which they used for the vaccine.

The researchers’ next task was to test the vaccine on people. They recruited 88 people with cat allergies and the test showed no serious side effects. The researchers said that a single shot of the vaccine reduced the skin’s inflammation reaction to cat allergies by as much as 40 percent.

McMaster University’s Adiga Life Sciences and the British firm Circassia Ltd are currently working to come out with the vaccine in commercial quantity. The scientists say it would take years before the vaccine would be available.

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