Effector Cell Assay for Predicting Clinical Cat Allergy in Asthma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Effector Cell Assay for Predicting Clinical Cat Allergy in Asthma (ForeCAst)
IRAS ID
268799
Contact name
Clare Murray
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
Asthma is one of the commonest lung conditions in the UK. Many people with asthma and allergy live with pets at home. This can make their symptoms worse. Because people are often exposed to many things around them at once, it can be difficult for patients with asthma and allergies to tell if it is their pets making their symptoms worse. Unfortunately, currently there is no easy test to diagnose this. Generally doctors advise removal of pets, but this is not always easy and might not be necessary if the pets are not making the symptoms worse.
Recently we have developed a new lab-based blood test which may tell us more about if the presence of pets are making asthma symptoms worse. In this study, we will focus on cat allergy.
Briefly, we will ask participants who may have cat allergy or mild asthma to undergo a variety of clinical tests, including routine clinical tests for allergies and a well-established clinical test that is used in clinical research called inhaled allergen challenge. The study will be carried out over 2 to 3 visits. There will be no overnight stay. We will also visit participants briefly at your home the day after the last clinic visit to collect dust and/or cat hair for analysis.
We hope that by doing this research, we can help doctors to better diagnose cat allergy in asthma and give people the right advice about the impact of their cat on their asthma. With further research, the results of this study could potentially be expanded to other allergies too.
This study is funded by Moulton Charitable Foundation.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0817
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jun 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion