If you’re bothered by allergies every spring, you may pop a Benadryl or Claritin most mornings to make the days tolerable. Two-thirds of Americans report spring allergies, and about 4 in 10 say they take an allergy medication several times a week.

But those medicines, while valuable, don’t exactly fix the problem. One 2001 study in the United Kingdom found 60 percent of people who took some kind of over-the-counter medication for allergies reported they were not satisfied with how it managed their symptoms.

Nasal sprays are not exactly enjoyable or easy to operate. Allergy medicines have to be taken every day if you deal with serious hay fever, and they can produce, ironically, tiredness for some people during this season of renewal. A missed dose can lead to a day of hacking and sneezing. Oh, and the more you take them, the less likely they are to work.

A century ago, antihistamines were a revolution in allergy treatment. But now, we’re on the cusp of another.

Omalizumab, sold as Xolair, is an asthma medication that was approved more than 20 years ago, but it has proven successful in treating seasonal allergies in recent preliminary trials. So successful, in fact, that now some doctors in the US are prescribing it for certain patients during hay fever season. It is an injection, rather than a pill or a spray, that’s given a couple of weeks before pollen and grass levels start to rise.

One obvious benefit is you get a single shot and enjoy your spring. But even better, omalizumab can forestall allergic reactions at the source. That means an injection could stop all allergic reactions — not only seasonal allergies but food allergies (such as peanuts) and insect allergies for a prolonged period of time. This class of treatment — monoclonal antibodies, special artificial proteins that carry instructions to the body’s immune system — have the potential to be a genuine all-in-one allergy wonder drug.

“The biggest advantage of antibody-based therapeutics is that they offer the potential to target the underlying pathways driving allergic reactions in general,” said Sayantani Sindher, a clinical associate professor at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. “This means antibody-based therapies will simultaneously impact all of the patient’s allergens.”

Large clinical trials are underway in China and Japan, which could lead to omalizumab’s approval in those countries for seasonal allergies. The next generation of monoclonal antibody allergy treatments is already in the works.

How monoclonal antibodies could stop allergy season before it starts

In the United States, the use of monoclonal antibodies started with doctors studying and........

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