Article: Gesundheit: a cat allergy is nothing to sneeze at. Find out what some scientists are doing to stop kitty-caused sniffles in their tracks.(Life)

Meow. To many people, that's the sound made by a cute, cuddly animal. But to the 10 percent of Americans with a cat allergy, it's the sound of an oncoming sneezing attack. That's because certain particles in a cat's hair, skin, saliva, and urine start a chain reaction inside an allergic person's body that eventually leads to a loud, wet ahh-choo!

"A lot of people presume they're allergic to cat hair, but in reality they're allergic to a protein (chemical made by instructions from a cell's DNA) that the cats emit," says Simon Brodie, president of Allerca, Inc., a California-based company. This sneeze-causing kitty protein is known as Fel (for feline) d1.

But soon, ...

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