Progress towards drug therapy for allergic reactions

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA, have made significant progress in developing a molecule that selectively kills off cells involved in triggering severe allergic reactions.

The team have been investigating a unique protein known as Siglec-8 which is present on the surfaces of immune cells such as eosinophils, basophils and mast cells. During an allergic reaction, these cells are involved in the allergic response that causes harm to other cells in the body.

In previous work, the researchers found that when they bound antibodies that specifically bind to the Siglec-8 protein on eosinophils, it caused these cells to die. This may be a useful means to defuse the allergic response. As an alternative to using antibodies to trigger this result, the scientists discovered an unusual sugar that could uniquely and selectively attach to and activate Siglec-8.

Several experiments have been conducted to validate these results, and the findings so far have been positive. The researchers maintain there is still much work to conduct before this technology could be developed into a pharmaceutical therapy for treating allergic reactions.

Reference: Hudson et al. 2009. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Vol. 330 pp. 608-612.