"This novel approach to treating cat allergies is encouraging news for millions of cat-allergic Americans. Moreover, these results provide proof-of-concept for using this approach to develop therapies to prevent deadly food allergy reactions as well," says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the research.

Cat, Human Protein Tethered

The injectable treatment puts a brake on the release of a key chemical from cells involved in cat allergy reactions. That chemical, histamine, brings on allergy symptoms, such as sneezing, wheezing, itching, watery eyes and sometimes asthma.

When a cat-allergic person touches or inhales a protein found in cat saliva or dander (small scales from skin or hair), key immune system cells respond by spewing out histamine. Allergy experts estimate that 14 percent of children 6 to 19 years old are allergic to cats.

The treatment comprises a molecule that loosely tethers a feline and a human protein together. The feline end is the notorious protein (called "Fel d1") found in cat dander and saliva that causes so much misery in allergy sufferers. On the other end sits a piece of human antibody (called "IgG Fcf