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Treating food allergies might be a simple matter of teaching the immune system a new trick, researchers at Duke Health have found.
In a study using mice bred to have peanut allergies, the Duke researchers were able to reprogram the animals' immune systems using a nanoparticle delivery of molecules to the lymph nodes that switched off the life-threatening reactions to peanut exposures.
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They focused on the Th2-type cytokine immune response, which is increasingly understood as a driver of the overactive immune responses in allergy attacks. In an appropriate immune response, Th2 works in tandem with Th1, but during allergic reactions, Th2 is overproduced and Th1 is diminished.
The solution appears simple enough: deliver more Th1-type cytokines ahead of an allergen exposure to restore balance. But it has proven difficult. A test of this type was attempted as an asthma therapy, but it required a massive dose to the lungs and was ineffective.
In their experiment with the peanut-allergy mice, St. John and colleagues instead delivered antigen- and cytokine-loaded nanoparticles into the skin. The nanoparticles traveled to the lymph nodes, where they dissolved and dispensed their payload at the source of the immune response.
Animals that received this therapy no longer went into an acute allergic response called anaphylaxis when they were subsequently exposed to peanuts. The new-found tolerance was long-lasting, so did not need to be repeated ahead of each exposure to the allergen.
"The Th1 and Th2 sides of immunity balance each other," St. John said. "We reasoned that since we know Th2 immunity is over-produced during allergic responses, why not try to skew the immune response back the other direction? By delivering cytokines to the lymph nodes where immune responses are established, we were able to re-educate the immune system that an allergic response is not an appropriate one."
The approach could theoretically be applied to other allergens, including environmental triggers such as dust and pollen. Additional experiments are underway to move the findings into human trials.
(Score: 2) by danmars on Friday February 23 2018, @05:23PM (2 children)
The manufacturers of the EpiPen will definitely not have the clout to bury such research, and pretty much all the basic antihistamine allergy medicines have generics at this point - you can get 2 weeks' supply of the Zyrtec generic for $1 at the dollar store. It would make sense for the companies to produce a new (surely expensive) cure for individual allergies, which need to be targeted at the individual allergen and don't provide any benefit for other allergies. Sounds like a win for everyone (except the makers of the EpiPen, who are nearly universally despised).
It likely doesn't even cure intolerances, though it would be amazing if it did. Scoff if you want to, but people with food intolerances would line up around the block. The people I've known who settled on a diagnosis of gluten intolerance did so begrudgingly, and would try a cure if it were available. People don't only eat kale or arugula because they're allergic to lettuce; food fashion is not predicated on having a screwed up digestive tract.
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Friday February 23 2018, @06:04PM (1 child)
Bullshit.
Its the In-Thing these days to claim gluten intolerance. You can be special just by asking. Then you can go home and eat all the gluten food you want. Nobody will know.
The down side is that faddishly sticking to a gluten free diet is a self fulfilling prophesy. If you never eat gluten you will, after a while, lose the gut microbes necessary to digest it, and thereby become gluten intolerant. Then you get to have a fecal transplant. Ah, the pleasures of fad following.!
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 23 2018, @08:23PM
My personal theory is that they do in fact have a reaction to something but it's probably not actually the gluten, though.
It's the correlation vs. causation effect. Gluten free stuff is generally rather healthy in other aspects as well.
If you feel sick after eating a Big Mac it's probably not the bun that did it!