Interesting article in the New York Times on allergy-free kittens.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/science/06cat.html?ex=1163307600&en=cedc265ae2
76d64b&ei=5070
 
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: October 6, 2006

A small California biotech company says it is ready to deliver the
Holy Grail of the $35 billion pet industry: a hypoallergenic cat.
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Julie Chytrowsky

Two cats with a mutant gene that produces a modified protein far less
likely to induce allergies.

At the start of next year, the first kittens — which the company calls
“lifestyle pets” — will go home to eager owners who have been
carefully screened and have been on a waiting list for more than two
years.

Since it announced the project in October 2004, the company, Allerca,
of San Diego, says it has received inquiries from people in 85
countries seeking to buy a cat bred so that its glands do not produce
the protein responsible for most human cat allergies.

Cats ordered now will take 12 to 15 months for delivery in the United
States, 15 to 18 months in Europe. Cost: $4,000. And owners must pass
Allerca’s finicky screening tests.

Prospective buyers are interviewed for motivation and warmth, approved
as if they were adopting a child. Will they punish if kitty has an
accident on the floor or scratches the furniture? Their families and
their homes — from carpets to curtains — must also be evaluated for
allergies and allergens.

“You’re not just buying a cat; it’s a medical device that replaces
shots and pills,” said Megan Young, chief executive of Allerca. “At
the same time, this is a living animal, so the well-being of our
product comes before our customers. This is not some high-priced
handbag that you put back on the shelf if it doesn’t match.”

In the United States and Europe, cats are the most common household
pet — there are an estimated 30 million in this country alone — and
cat allergies are one of most common human allergies. That combination
has made many homes cauldrons of sneezing, itchy conflicts in which a
fiancé is allergic to his beloved’s favorite pet, or a mother-in-law
cannot come for a festive meal because of Fluffy’s presence.

With cat owners sometimes paying thousands of dollars each year for
allergy shots, antihistamines and air filters to damp down allergies,
$4,000 for a sneeze-free existence may be an acceptable price tag.
More research is needed, but preliminary independent studies suggest
Allerca cats do not provoke allergies.

“As strange as it may sound, for us the price would have been worth it
— it would have saved us money, and saved us pain from all the medical
and also emotional problems,” said Christopher Cullen of New York. His
girlfriend’s worsening allergies resulted this week in their putting
up for adoption their beloved cat, Cimbi, who had achieved “mild
Internet notoriety,” Mr. Cullen said, as the star of her own Web site,
harlemfur.com.

Mr. Cullen and his girlfriend, Cheryl Burley, have fought a losing
two-year battle to engineer a tolerable co-existence with Cimbi,
because Ms. Burley, a devoted cat lover, has had cat allergies since
childhood. On the Web site, you can watch Mr. Cullen, who works for
the New York Senate Democratic Conference, giving Cimbi a bath to
reduce her allergen load; he takes Cimbi on a leash to Morningside
Park for a day, to give his girlfriend’s allergies a break.

The couple never put down carpets. They installed HEPA filters and
vacuumed incessantly. But Ms. Burley’s symptoms worsened in recent
months and that fragile equilibrium fell apart two weeks ago when the
couple took in a second cat, Marley. Ms. Burley could not work, could
not breathe and had a seizure. They took Marley to an animal shelter.

“Our whole life has gone downhill,” Ms. Burley said. “I missed four
days of work. I’m back on inhalers, eyedrops and creams. This
hypoallergenic cat would be a perfect solution for me. I’m determined
to have a kitty.”

Dr. Sheldon Spector, a professor of clinical medicine at the
University of California, Los Angeles, recently studied the cats and
said the concept seemed to work.

Ten volunteers with severe cat allergies were exposed to a variety of
cats but showed no reaction to the Allerca cats, though all had
symptoms with normal animals. “This is not a definitive study, but it
is an interesting and intriguing concept that could really help
people,” Dr. Spector said.

For the moment, he said he would not recommend buying the cats because
“$4,000 seems like a lot of money” and there was still the chance that
some people might react to some degree to less common cat proteins.

Most human cat allergies are caused by Fel d 1, a molecule that has
been sequenced and its gene mapped in the last decade. At first,
Allerca scientists sought a method to delete or disable the gene.

But in testing to see whether the gene had been effectively silenced,
they made a fortuitous discovery: A very small number of cats carry a
mutant gene that produces a modified protein, far less likely to
induce allergies.

At that point, the research shifted course. Allerca screened thousands
of cats to identify a population with the modified gene and then set
those cats to breeding. Because the mutant gene is dominant, the
breeding cats could be mated with normal cats to produce
hypoallergenic kittens. And no special licensing or government
approvals were necessary.

So, for the past few months, Allerca’s small pool of hypoallergenic
cats have been busy reproducing. Their breeding facility cannot be
visited and “is at a secret undisclosed location,” said Ms. Young,
Allerca’s chief executive.

At 10 to 12 weeks, every Allerca kitten is neutered before it is
delivered. The company insists this is mainly to prevent feline
overpopulation. But every Allerca cat carries the dominant
hypoallergenic gene and, in theory, could produce copycat
hypoallergenic kittens.

In tests, Allerca cats do not produce allergic reactions. But only a
few of the cats have lived in private homes, and only for a few weeks.

Last month, an Allerca public relations consultant, Julie Chytrowsky,
kept Joshua, an Allerca cat, for several weeks at her Los Angeles area
apartment. Joshua had flown to California to “do some publicity.”

Ms. Chytrowsky, who says she is normally quite allergic, had no
symptoms even though she allowed Joshua to sleep in her bed. “I fell
in love with him,” she said. “He is a real stud — well, he is a stud,
really.”

The company insists on an assiduous screening of all prospective
owners and their families because the cats may still not be safe for
people with the most severe forms of cat allergy, such as people who
have been rushed to the hospital after anaphylactic reactions. They
might react to even the modified protein.

A Food and Drug Administration allergy test kit arrives five weeks
before each kitten and all family members must be tested. Another
required test detects the presence of other allergens in the house
through a collection system that clients must place on their vacuum.

“We don’t want you blaming our cats if the real issue is mold or
ragweed,” Ms. Young said.