Scientists Discover Surprising Allergy Fix: UV Light

Allergic people may suffer many days after removing objectionable organisms. Researchers, of course, are now imagining the future with portable devices that can clear a house of airborne allergen using ultraviolet light.

In the new study published in the journal ACS S&T AirResearchers have found a way to change the structure of allergic airborne protein with UV light. This method reveals a better alternative to cleaning carpets and cats for months and in extreme cases it can even save lives.

“We have found that we can use a passive, usually safe ultraviolet light treatment to disabling the airborne allergen,” a microbiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, co-authors of research, said at a university, at a university. StatementThe “We believe that people in their homes, schools or other places can be another tool to help fight allergens inside the house.”

You don’t have allergies for cats

If you are allergic to things like cats, dogs, molds or plants, you are probably not allergic to that organism, but they are emitted to a protein. For example, cats emit a protein in their saliva, known as FL D1, when they lick themselves, become the airborne in the tiny flakes of dead skin. When we breathe in allergins like these particles, our resistance creates antibodies that trigger the allergic reaction by locking it on a special 3D structure of the protein.

This is why you can still sneeze when you can move a carpet, though no cat has walked for months. Proteins are still there, and they cannot be killed as germs as they are not alive. The use of filters, vacuuming and washing walls and pets are helpful to reduce allergen through common methods, but it is difficult to keep in the long run.

For example, EIDIDEM and his colleagues investigated an alternative method: instead of trying to get rid of allergic proteins, they changed their structure and made them unfamiliar with their resistance. The team compares it to the revealing of an Origami animal. “If your resistance is used in a swan and you unveil the protein so that it doesn’t look like a swan you will not increase the reaction of the allergies,”

Low acute light

Q UV lights. Ultraviolet lights are already used to eliminate airborne Pathogens And to sterile tools at establishments like hospitals and airports. But the bandwidth is usually so powerful-a 254-nanometer wavelength-that people have to use their eyes and skin to protect them to protect them.

As a result, the team has tested the low-height 222-nanometer-wave-length lights, which are considered safe for populous rooms because they do not enter the cells. Eididem, however Harmful If inhaled. For example, human exposure should still be limited.

EIDIDEM and his colleagues have published small allergies from mites, pets, mold and pollen in a chamber, and launched four lunchbox-ward UV 222 lamps on the ceiling and floor. They have tested the air over 10 minutes that the resistance of the treated samples has decreased. In other words, antibodies do not detect many proteins and bound them.

Researchers explained on the paper, “The amount of aerolagen was determined using antibody-based immunoses, depending on intact protein conformations for antibody-allergen recognition,” explained on paper.

Half an hour later, the airborne allergen layers depend on the type of allergen, how long the light was going on and the allergen keys were floating, such as dust or drops on average decreased by 20 to 25%. In a situation, the UV light exposure is not treated within 40 minutes, the Fil D1 decreases by 61% compared to the allergen -filled air.

“When you compare the carpet with a few months and months, comparing the carpet with a few months and months, they are reduced quite quickly.”

Personal application

Although UV 222 lights are already available to consumers, they are mostly for industrial applications, so Eididem expects people to visit when people use Portable UV 222 lights for more personal activities, such as to see a friend with three cats. In a more serious note, UV 222 lights can even be life -saving.

“Asthma attacks kill about 10 people every day in the United States and they are often triggered by airborne allergies,” said Dem. “It is really important to try to develop new ways to prevent this exposure.”