A research team has identified a key enzyme responsible for triggering a chain of events that results in allergic reaction, according to new study findings published online// this week in Nature Immunology.

The work by researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, the Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York sets the stage for development of new strategies and target therapies that control allergic disease – the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States.

Allergic diseases such as asthma and hay fever are problematic for about 30 percent of the population in the developed world. Researchers have developed various treatments to control allergy, but no cure has been found.

The team has demonstrated, for the first time, the role of a proteolytic enzyme called ADAM10 that releases a major allergy regulatory protein from the surface of cells and thereby promotes a stronger allergic response. The identification of drugs that inhibit ADAM10’s ability to release this molecule could revolutionize treatment of asthma and allergic disease.

“Our research, for the first time, may represent a treatment strategy to prevent, rather than simply control IgE-mediated allergy,” said Daniel Conrad, Ph.D., a professor in VCU’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Conrad directed the research conducted at VCU. IgE is an antibody known to trigger Type I allergic disease.

“Understanding ADAM10’s role in allergic disease makes it a potential target for the design of drugs to treat asthma and allergic disease,” he said.

According to Conrad, the outcome of allergic disease can be modulated by high levels of the regulatory protein, known as CD23, which ultimately results in a decreased production of IgE. He said that when the regulatory protein is released from the cell surface by ADAM10 there is an increase in the production of IgE and therefore, increased al
'"/>




Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. Chemical Signaling Helps Regulate Sensory Map Formation In The Brain
2. Hh Signaling May Play Role In Fat Formation
3. Birth Defects Caused By Deficiencies In Cell Signaling Pathway
4. Lake Superior in US Losing Ice Cover Fast, Signaling Global Warming
5. Switching drugs regularly improves HIV treatment
6. Protein acts as "Master Switch" that cuts off cells Cancer-Growth machinery
7. In The Habit Of Taking Painkillers For Your Chronic Headache? Time To Switch Over
8. Unusual Tumor-Suppressor Gene Switches Off in Lung Cancer
9. Switching Off Protein Could Play Key Role In Success Of Radiation Therapy For Cancer
10. Reduced Weight Gain Is Seen In People Who Switch To A Vegetarian Diet
11. Breast Cancer Treatment Switches to more Modern Therapy