Everything about Allerca totally explained
Allerca is a
San Diego-based
biotechnology company which claims to have bred
hypoallergenic cats through a
selective breeding process.
According to company literature, the
company's cats have significantly reduced levels of a particular protein that
humans suffer
allergic reactions to. The journal
Nature reported in September, 2006 that in an Allerca-funded study, Sheldon Spector, a clinical
allergy expert at the
University of California, Los Angeles, found the company's cats to be less allergy-inducing than the control. However, neither the study nor its underlying data have been published, and Spector himself advises caution as regards his study's interpretation as he used an experimental setup that's generally regarded as less than reliable. A
July 2006 article in the
San Diego Union-Tribune reported that no details about the cats have been released, nor have there been any
peer-reviewed studies published about the company's work. Cat experts also questioned whether the company's breeding model - stated at the time to be up to 10,000 cats by
2009 - was viable.
Time named the company's cats among its list of Best Inventions for 2006. Allerca is unable to provide a GD kitten to clients whose allergy test "results indicate a level that includes HIGH".
Fel d 1
Most human cat allergies are caused by
Fel d 1. Allerca (and earlier, Geneticas) scientists tried to delete or disable the gene. The company now says it has
discovered a breed of cats that had a mutant version of the protein that didn't induce an allergic response. Since a number of Fel d 1
alleles are known and documented whereas it's presently impossible to deduce allergenicity from their DNA or protein sequence alone, the alleged mutant cats could in fact exist, but their hypoallergenicity can't be considered proven for the time being.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Allerca'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://allerca.totallyexplained.com">Allerca Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
