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New Allergy Treatment Could Save Time & Cut Number Of Injections

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Are you tired of all the sneezing and watery eyes?

Now, there's a new, less time-consuming way to treat allergies.

The traditional way to conquer allergies involves weekly shots of higher and higher doses of liquefied, specifically concentrated allergen -- whether that's pollen, pet dander, certain foods, even dust mites.

"The holy grail has always been to come up with a way of avoiding that long six-month period of injections and the several years of injections thereafter," Dr. James DeAngelo said.

A new approach called synthetic peptide immuno regulatory epitopes, or Spires, could change this.

While they are still shots into the skin, it won't involve as many or as often.

"There's evidence that suggests that at least eight should do the job. Hopefully, four injections. They would typically administer them four weeks apart," Dr. DeAngelo said.

During an allergic reaction, the substance that causes the allergy, called the allergen, binds with immune system cells called mast cells. When that happens, the mast cells release histamine, which causes the severe swelling and itching.

A peptide is too small to start a full blown reaction, but big enough to signal immune system cells to go into "soothe mode" to calm the mast cells, instead of "inflame mode," to agitate them.

It's still being studied. In fact, an allergist in the South Hills is hoping for 30 patients to enroll in a placebo-controlled trial.

To participate in this portion of the study, you must be house dust mite allergic as your only allergy and you can't have severe asthma.

If things go well in the study, it's probably still two to three years from FDA approval.

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