A patch therapy against hay fever

Even if the subject is not entirely valid in the middle of autumn, the information will be of interest to all those who still fear the return of spring.

A patch therapy against hay fever (epicutaneous immunotherapy) may soon alleviate their problems. This is indicated by an experiment and its first results that have just been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Team of Gabriela Senti at the University Hospital of Zurich, conducted a study on 37 adults sensitive to grass pollen with skin and nasal testing to provoke a hay fever reaction.

Patients received a patch containing either the allergen (21) or placebo (16), put on the upper arm for 48 hours once a week for three months.

The patch, developed and produced by the University Hospital of Zurich, was a sheet of polyethylene filled with pollen extract of Phleum pratense measured at 300 IR (index of reactivity) in vaseline, or a placebo.

The plate was perforated on the skin side and held by adhesive tape. Allergen group patients showed greater tolerance to nasal provocation test for at least a year. The first year, this improvement was not very different from that observed in the placebo group, but the placebo effect disappeared in the second season, while the improvement persisted in the treated group.

Patients who received the "true" patch also reported improvement of symptoms of hay fever significantly higher during the two years of treatment than the placebo group compared to the year before treatment.

The use of drugs against hay fever was similar in both groups, showing that patients continued to have symptoms of hay fever, but they were better controlled in the allergen group, say the authors.

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