Credit: The Happy Cat Site
Purina cat food is studying how adding an antibody to a cat’s food could help stop the allergy.
The antibody would help to render some of the protein Fel d1. This is unrecognizable to the human immune system, which produces an allergic response. In Purina’s test, after 105 cats participated for 10 weeks, the amount of Fel d1 protein on the cats’ hair dropped by 47 percent.
11 people who were allergic to cats experienced substantially reduced naval symptoms and less itchy, scratchy eyes when exposed to the hair from the cats. Fel d1 is produced in cats’ salivary and sebaceous glands and it gets transferred to their hair when they lick themselves, and is also excreted in their urine. The cat hair and dander that is found throughout the house is what causes the reaction in humans.
Doctors say that they can’t give humans antibodies because the molecules are broken down in the gut and never reach their target. By adding the antibody into cats through their cat food, it will have an effect in the mouth, thus neutralizing the protein in saliva.
The new treatment is expected to help those people who have mild allergic reactions to cats. Researchers do not believe that it will be all that effective with people who have severe allergies. They are also concerned with that fact that Fel d1 is a sticky protein and tends to accumulate in the home over time. Even though cats would be fed the antibody-laced food, it could still be around, but just take a bit longer to reach you.
Further research will be done to find concrete evidence of its effectiveness in people’s homes, but this is certainly a positive sign to help some people who struggle with cat allergies. Purina hopes to have a product out soon that will make home life a lot easier for cat lovers.
