JUST THE BASICS

Probably every allergist has heard a story like this before: someone who grew up with a pet suddenly finds they are allergic to animals after being away at college! We don’t know exactly why some people develop new allergies after being away from their pets. This cartoon envisions “tolerance” and “allergy” as rival immunology football teams - the winner will determine if the student develops a new pet allergy. “Tolerance” in the world of immunology means that the immune system ignores the allergen and doesn’t react to it.

TELL ME SOMETHING NERDY

One of the few studies on this topic looked at IgG4 and IgE antibodies to cat allergen in people who went to college after living with a cat. IgE antibodies are the antibodies that trigger allergic reactions, while IgG4 antibodies are thought to protect against allergies. They found that college students didn’t develop new IgE antibodies to cats while they were away from their pets. Instead, they experienced a decrease in their IgG4 antibodies to cat. Did losing these antibodies cause some students to react to a pet after returning home from college? We don’t know - they didn’t collect any information on allergy symptoms, so they couldn’t correlate these findings with clinical outcomes. However, the results are interesting and suggest an exciting topic for future research!

Cartoon published in the May 2024 Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2024.02.001

Study reference: Erwin EA, Woodfolk JA, James HR, Satinover SM, Platts-Mills TA. “Changes in cat specific IgE and IgG antibodies with decreased cat exposure.” Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2014 Jun;112(6):545-550.