DNA Treatment Relieves Allergies, Hay Fever

BALTIMORE -- Spring is in the air and most people can look forward to warmer weather.

But for the 40 million people suffering from hay fever and ragweed allergies, springtime can mean misery. Now a new treatment can take care of those allergies once and for all.

Allergy season can be tough on many. Joseph Striedl knows all about it.

"As early as I can remember, I've always had some sort of allergy, whether it would be to mold, mildew, grass, pollen, ragweed," he said. "You name it, I think I had it."

For years, Striedl had allergy shots. Each wee,k he would roll up his sleeve to get one.

"I was showing up every week, every other week, every other month, monthly. It was pretty annoying after a while," he said.

He found it so annoying that he stopped getting the shots and instead put up with watery eyes, a runny nose, sneezing and congestion.

Then he found Dr. Peter Creticos, an allergist who is studying a DNA vaccine to determine if just six weeks of shots could be enough to relieve a lifetime of allergies.

"We have been able to demonstrate marked improvement in symptoms with six injections that's really comparable to what you would have expected only after years of traditional shots," said Creticos, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The study shows six weeks of the DNA vaccine relieved allergies for up to 80 percent of patients.

"We think that with this type of approach, we may indeed be able to shut off the allergic response to an important allergen such as ragweed and indeed possibly shut off or, quote, cure the disease," Creticos said.

Striedl has already noticed an improvement, and that makes springtime look and feel a whole lot better.

More tests are being done to determine how long the improvements last and whether allergy sufferers will need a booster shot for long-term allergy control.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Asthma and Allergy Center
Johns Hopkins University
5501 Hopkins Bayview Circle
Room 2B45
Baltimore, MD 21224
(410) 550-2122
http://www.hopkins-allergy.org/

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