09 24 25 CU Pathology Scientist Dr Tess Eidem on UV light fighting indoor allergens

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gina Gondek Marty Lens on Colorado's Morning News. Tired of
dealing with allergies, We'll turn on a lights.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
A new study from the University of Colorado shows UV
light can disable allergens quickly and it works against everything
from dust mites to trees, mold, and cat allergens. And
joining us in the ka Commas Spirit Health Hotline. Doctor
Tess Eaedam, study author and senior Research Associate in the
Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at CU. Doctor,

(00:26):
Welcome to Colorado's Morning News. Interesting research going on here.
The light kills the allergens, but why can't allergens be
killed without it or other ways?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
That's a great question. Yeah, you know, allergens are really
interesting because they come from life forms, but they're actually
not living, so it's very challenging to kill them like
you would kill bacteria or mold. And instead of killing them,
what we want to do is inactivate them because if
we can inactivate them, then the immune system which caused

(01:00):
is all that allergic response might not be able to
recognize it as well, and it might reduce those resulting
allergens and response.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
So we've thought about those lights when the pandemic first
kind of sprouted up with those lights that were able
to kill some of the viruses in bacteria. But now,
how is this UV light able to reduce, not kill,
but reduce some of the allergens in the air. What
did you find in the study? How is it conducted?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, so a lot of us are familiar with UV
lights that we see in like duct work or that
maybe disinfect an unoccupied space. That's UV light at two
fifty four nanometers. This was using a special type of
far UVC light called UV two twenty two, so it's
at two hundred and twenty two nanometers and this light

(01:46):
is not as harmful to the skin and eyes, and
so it can be used in occupied spaces, so it's
considered more occupant safe. So these lights can be on
while people are in the room. And what we found
is that if we put allergens into the air in
a controlled chamber environment and we turn these UV two

(02:06):
twenty two lights on, that it can reduce the amount
of allergens in the air. And we measure that through
these assays that kind of reflect how the immune system
recognizes these allergens, and so we think that it could
correlate to some relief for symptoms for people. But we
have not done those studies yet. It's still very early

(02:29):
in our process.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I'm sure you're excited about that data my next leap,
and to your point, you're still doing it on the
study you have. But does this show that UV light
can be used for other practices and practical uses when
it comes to health and some other things that we
may need it for.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, one in three people in the
US suffer from some type of allergy, whether it's food
or beastings or these airborne allergens. And most of us,
even in the great state of Colorado, where we like
to spend a lot of time out doors, we actually
spend most of our time indoors where these airborne allergens
can actually accumulate and concentrate in these indoor spaces, and

(03:10):
fighting these allergens can be really challenging. You know, if
you're allergic to cats, for example, the first thing a
doctor will tell you is get rid of your cat,
and most people don't want to do that, and so
there's a lot of rigorous cleaning, you know, ripping up carpets,
baiting your cat, getting rid of your bedding, if you're
legit to dustmites. All of that can be very, very

(03:31):
labor intensive, and what we wanted to do is see
if we could find this passive way to just turn
on these UV lights that are occupant safe and see
if that can add another layer to these allergen control
methods that people are employing and hopefully get those allergy
symptoms down and hopefully also reduce asthma attacks, which can

(03:53):
occur when people breathe in allergens that can actually trigger
some of these asthma attacks. So we wanted to help
people who have those symptoms.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
So, doctor Eatam, is, what's the next steps in this test?
Are you hoping to do a human study on it
to see how it works, or is there ever the
possibility maybe the ultimate goal of having these portable UV
lights available for people when they step into a hotel
room and realize instantly that they're allergic to something in there.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, you know, this is still very early research,
but these lights, these UV two twenty lights, they are
commercially available and they're already in production, so you can
buy these lights from several different vendors, and you know,
definitely more work needs to be done. Our lab is
very interested in lots of you know, questions that build

(04:41):
on this foundational work. We're really interested in how these
UV two twenty lights work. You know, we think that
they're unfolding these proteins. So proteins are kind of like
or agami in a way, you have to they're folded properly,
and so you might you know, a cat allergen might
fold up and kind of look to your immune system
like a cat or a dog might look like a dog,

(05:03):
and if you can unfold it, then maybe your immune
system can't recognize it as well. So we want to
look at that mechanistic work. We also want to look
at the symptom relief in people. You know, if allergens
are treated with this UV light, are they less allergenic now?
Is your immune system less able to recognize them? And

(05:25):
we want to look at the practical application of the
VUV two twenty two lights. You know, we did this
work in a controlled chamber that fieled in our laboratory.
What happens when we put these lights in classrooms or
we put them in homes or businesses or occupied spaces,
And so we're really interested in a lot of other

(05:46):
questions to follow up on this work, but it definitely
sets the groundwork for lots more scientific investigation.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Doctor, I have a cat and a dog and a
teenage son. Maybe people are allergic to that as well,
so you can about my home anytime. Doctor, fascinating research.
Really appreciate your time and insight on this.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Thank you, Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
That's doctor Tess Adam, study author and senior research associate
in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at
the University of Colorado.