Alpha-gal syndrome is the only known food allergy triggered by a tick bite, and until now it has had no targeted treatment. That may be starting to change.
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have isolated rare human antibodies that stopped the allergic response from firing in laboratory experiments.
The findings appeared September 1, 2026 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Two antibodies drawn from people in Mali who had been exposed to malaria blocked patient IgE from binding to the sugar molecule that triggers the reaction.
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It is the first sign that a biological treatment for the condition may be within reach.
An allergy caught from a tick bite
Alpha-gal syndrome, or AGS, develops after a tick bite prompts the immune system to react against galactose-α-1,3-galactose. That sugar is found in mammal meat and other mammal-derived products.
In the United States, the lone star tick is most often associated with AGS.
The CDC also lists blacklegged and western blacklegged ticks as suspected culprits in a small number of cases.
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More than 110,000 suspected cases were identified in the United States between 2010 and 2022, according to the CDC.
The agency estimates that as many as 450,000 Americans may actually be affected, and many never connect their reactions to a tick bite from years earlier.
Symptoms typically appear 3 to 8 hours after eating red meat and can range from hives and stomach cramps to life-threatening anaphylaxis.
Anyone with repeated unexplained reactions after meals should talk to a doctor, ideally an allergist familiar with tickborne illness.
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What the antibodies actually did
The NIAID team, led by Hyeseon Cho and Peter Crompton, isolated 42 alpha-gal antibodies from 18 people in a long-running malaria study in Mali. Thirteen bound to the allergens that drive the meat reaction.
Two antibodies, labeled AG028 and AG050, went further and stopped IgE from AGS patients from attaching to those allergens.
The researchers tested them against serum from 88 patients treated at the University of North Carolina.
In the strongest tests, AG028 inhibited IgE binding by 60 to 97 percent. It also suppressed the activation of basophils, the immune cells that release the chemicals behind allergic symptoms, by up to 86 percent.
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"We are thrilled that this research is helping to advance the development of alpha-gal-specific monoclonal antibodies," said Peter Crompton, MD, senior investigator at NIAID.
Still a long way from a prescription
The results come from cell and serum experiments in a laboratory, not from patients being treated.
No alpha-gal antibody drug has been tested in people yet, and translating a promising blocker in a test tube into an approved therapy typically takes years of clinical trials.
For now, avoiding red meat and other mammal-derived products remains the only reliable way to prevent reactions.
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The CDC recommends that AGS be managed under the care of an allergist or another healthcare provider who can help identify hidden sources of alpha-gal in foods, medications, and medical products.
This article is made and published by Mie Hermansen, who may have used AI in the preparation.