An estimated one in four people are allergic to cats.
Now, after learning how felines trigger such potent allergic reactions, researchers say new treatments may emerge.
Allergic reactions occur when the body’s immune system targets a normally harmless protein as if it were a dangerous pathogen, leading to inflammation. For people who are allergic to cats, that protein is Fel d 1, found in cat dander and the culprit behind allergy sufferers’ sneezes, wheezes, runny nose and watery eyes. But just how this protein triggers the immune system has been a mystery.
Human cells don’t respond to Fel d 1 alone, researchers at the University of Cambridge in England reported in July. It takes a third ingredient to get an inflammatory reaction: lipopolysaccharide, a molecule secreted by many common bacteria and therefore ubiquitous in the environment. When the researchers added a little of this bacterial byproduct to the mix, Fel ...
