BALTIMORE, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- An experimental DNA-based vaccine developed at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md., reduces hay fever symptoms by 60 percent.
The researchers, led by Peter Creticos, tested the new vaccine during two fall ragweed -- or "hay fever" -- seasons in Baltimore. Twenty-five volunteers, ages 23 to 60, with documented allergies to ragweed received either vaccine or placebo in six weekly injections during the first year of the study.
Subjects who received the vaccine had a 60 percent reduction in all their symptoms, including sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, and itching.
The symptom relief held steady the second year, even though no more vaccine was administered.
The current study was sponsored by the Immune Tolerance Network, which receives funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Dynavax Technologies Corp. of Berkeley, Calif., made the vaccine, which uses a DNA sequence derived from bacteria to shut down the T-helper cells that initiate the body's inflammatory immune responses.
The results of the study were published in the October 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
