THE first 鈥渦niversal鈥� allergy therapy is a step closer following successful trials in people allergic to house dust mites and cat dander.
The series of shots has the potential to treat a host of different allergies because it doesn鈥檛 rely on giving people tiny doses of the specific substance that they are allergic to, unlike most existing therapies. Instead, it works by distracting the overactive immune system, which is thought to be the cause of most allergic reactions. Patients receive a molecular 鈥渄ecoy鈥� which makes their body behave as if it is under attack by a bacterium. Distracted, it stops reacting to otherwise harmless allergens.
鈥淎 molecular 鈥榙ecoy鈥� makes the body behave as if it is under attack by a bacterium and stop reacting to harmless allergens鈥�
Advertisement
鈥淚t鈥檚 the first allergen-independent immunotherapy,鈥� says Claudine Blaser of Cytos Biotechnology, the company developing the treatment in Zurich, Switzerland.
Two years ago, much smaller trials suggested that the decoy 鈥� called CYT003-QbG10 鈥� might work (New Scientist, 28 September 2006, p 14). Now Cytos has carried out two larger trials with promising results.
On 10 July, the company announced that , twice that seen in volunteers who received a placebo.
In a parallel trial, in which 93 patients with dust-mite allergy received CYT003-QbG10 plus the dust-mite allergen, the reduction in symptoms was just 54 per cent, indicating that the therapy works best alone. 鈥淔rom the data, the 鈥榤onotherapy鈥� clearly gives the best results,鈥� says Blaser. There were only 20 reports of side effects in patients receiving monotherapy, compared with more than 200 separate adverse events reported by the 93 patients on combination treatment.
鈥淣ow we want to consider it for a broad range of allergies,鈥� says Blaser. Cytos will start a trial of the monotherapy in 300 people with dust-mite allergy later this year and another trial in people with hay fever next year.
鈥淐ytos may have found the holy grail of allergy,鈥� says , an allergy physician based in Greenville, South Carolina. Still, he says, further and larger studies are needed to determine the long-term effectiveness and safety of the series of shots.
