Vaccine promises yearly hay fever jab: [2 Edition]
Sarah Stock, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Feb 2002: 3.
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Abstract
The vaccine, the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Prem Bhalla and Mohan Singh of Melbourne University, could mean people need only an injection each year before the hay fever season to ward off the allergy. It could also mean a potential goldmine for Melbourne University, which together with the scientists owns the patent to the vaccine worldwide.
“Skin prick tests to assess the protein’s safety suggest it is a significantly safer and more effective alternative to the current immunotherapy used to treat grass pollen allergies,” Associate Professor Prem Bhalla said yesterday after details of the vaccine were reported in the European Journal of Immunology.
Full Text
A VACCINE that could treat the quarter of the world’s population that suffers from hay fever and other grass pollen-related allergies has been developed by Australian scientists.
The vaccine, the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Prem Bhalla and Mohan Singh of Melbourne University, could mean people need only an injection each year before the hay fever season to ward off the allergy. It could also mean a potential goldmine for Melbourne University, which together with the scientists owns the patent to the vaccine worldwide.
Licensing rights have been granted to US firm Heska Corporation but the university and scientists would be paid royalties if anyone in the world attempted to sell a grass pollen-related vaccine.
The vaccine, which has been tested on humans in Vienna for safety but still needs more extensive trials, has been 15 years in the making and could be available to the public in three to five years.
It was formulated by cloning and modifying a rye grass protein, one of the most potent environmental allergens known. The genetically modified protein significantly reduces allergic responses, making it safe for highly allergic people. Yet the modified protein is still capable of boosting immune responses.
These features, say the researchers, are the key to effective immunotherapy — giving allergic patients small but increasing doses of allergen-containing extracts to boost immune response.
Immunotherapy so far has involved injecting crude pollens containing unknown substances and can induce severe reactions.
“Skin prick tests to assess the protein’s safety suggest it is a significantly safer and more effective alternative to the current immunotherapy used to treat grass pollen allergies,” Associate Professor Prem Bhalla said yesterday after details of the vaccine were reported in the European Journal of Immunology.
“The symptoms of allergenic disease, like asthma, hay fever, allergic dermatitis and conjunctivitis, can be controlled with drugs, but specific immunotherapy is the only way to treat the cause of allergies that produce a potentially life-threatening hypersensitivity.”
The vaccine has been tested on 40 people in a collaborating hospital in Vienna. Trials on a few hundred Australians through St Vincents Hospital in Melbourne are hoped to be conducted this year.
The vaccine could be ready in three to five years time after human trials have been completed and evaluated.
Immunolgy and allergy director at Sydney’s Concord Hospital Ron Walls said yesterday the vaccine looked hopeful but clinical trials would be needed to determine its effectiveness.
Illustration
Caption: Seeing the light:; Photo: Photo