Fel d 1 protein is responsible for allergy to cats
About 20% of population suffer from allergy to cats, it is the second most common human allergy in the world, ahead of it only by house dust. Although 10 cat allergens have already been discovered, as many as 95% of patients with cat allergies have them specifically for one allergen, to a protein present in cat’s saliva and produced in the sebaceous glands marked as Fel d 1. Cats spread the allergen around their body when washing themselves. Then cat hair with allergens flies all over our house. A cat allergen is several times smaller than a dust allergen. It is precisely the elimination of this protein from cat saliva and hair that would help many of us with our daily allergic difficulties.
Scientists have found an antibody that, when given to cats, causes about half the amount of Fel d 1 protein in cats’ saliva, to which we are allergic. Antibodies are obtained from chicken eggs and added to cat food. We still don’t know why a cat produces Fel d 1 protein.
We have a long way to go until we find cat food with antibodies to Fel d 1 on the store shelves. Producers still have to carry out a lot of scientific research and obtain many approvals. The first results of research on Fel d1 proteins have just been carried out, and the results of their research have been released daily in Lisbon, in July 2019 at the European Academy of the Allergy and Immunology Competition.
