The research group of Associate Professor Yosuke Kurashima (Graduate School of Medicine) of Chiba University Graduate School, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, is the only treatment method for food allergies, but the mechanism of oral immunotherapy has many unclear points. I clarified a part of.
Food allergies occur when mast cells (a type of immune cell), a type of white blood cell, receive allergens and release allergens such as histamine.Oral immunotherapy is a promising treatment, but it is a research-stage treatment with little information, and there are also issues with adverse reactions and low success rates during treatment.It was known that oral immunotherapy increased the response of mast cells (a state in which they are not activated to allergens) and regulatory T cells, which are allergen-suppressing cells, but the relationship was unknown.
This time, oral immunotherapy was performed on mice with food allergies.In the group with allergic symptoms reduced, mast cells become hyporesponsive and produce proteins that increase regulatory T cells that suppress allergies (IL-2) and proteins that suppress allergic symptoms (IL-10). However, it was discovered that the properties have changed from bad cells that cause allergies to good cells that suppress allergic reactions.From this, it was found that not only the hyporesponsiveness of mast cells but also the mechanism by which mast cells themselves convert their functions into cells that suppress allergies are important for the success of allergy treatment.
In the future, if a switch mechanism that efficiently switches allergic bad cells to good cells is known, it is expected to develop a switching promoter that applies it.Furthermore, by controlling the switch mechanism and stably switching from bad cells to good cells, it is possible to contribute to improving the accuracy of food allergy treatment.
Paper information:[Mucosal Immunology] Orally desensitized mast cells form a regulatory network with Treg cells for the control of food allergy
