Technology News: Health : New Hope for Cat Allergy Sufferers

Scientists have made a breakthrough in efforts to prevent allergies caused by cats, it has emerged.

They have developed a protein [gamma Feline domesticus (GFD)] that could block the allergic response — and the technique could be adapted to other situations such as food allergies.

In the research, reported in the April issue of Nature Medicine, they found that mice treated with a newly developed part-cat, part-human protein did not develop an allergic reaction.

Andrew Saxon, of the University of California in Los Angeles, said in The Guardian newspaper that the technique could be extended to develop cures for potentially deadly allergies to food such as nuts.

The allergic attacks occur when the immune system mistakes cat or pollen allergens for germs, producing large amounts of an antibody which triggers the release of a chemical called histamine. This causes symptoms such as inflammation, rashes and swelling.

Dr. Saxon fused the cat allergen with a human protein that tends to slow down the immune system. The cat part causes the immune system to produce the antibody — but the human part calms the reaction, resetting the immune system.

His cure is still several years — and many clinical trials — away from becoming a mass market treatment, The Guardian noted.

Did you see that: “part-cat, part-human protein.” Yup, Dr. Moreau is hard at work fusing human DNA with whatever strikes his fancy. This tinkering is all for the good of mankind, of course. How many generations will pass before we discover we’ve pissed in the gene pool just enough to really fuck it up? What happens then — a final clash between the “Better Than Humans” and the “Purity or Death” crowds?

I’m allergic to cats. I have two cats. I’m not about to blend my DNA with theirs. mjh