A new study conducted by researchers at ‘Barts’ and ‘The London School of Medicine and Dentistry’ has found a key component of the body’s own responses to allergens. Allergens are the substances that cause the immunity system of the body to trigger a fight against the foreign bodies. These foreign bodies could be just dust, pollen, peanut, milk, penicillin etc. and since they are not recognized by our immune system, body reacts to them. The symptoms occur in the form of inflamed airway or runny nose or itching in the eyes or rashes on the skin. So this key component which triggers this fight can be targeted to reduce the allergic reactions.

In contrary to the all the major treatments for asthma and allergies which target on reducing symptoms , this new study targets the immune system of the body.

As most of the allergies are mere responses of our immune system to the foreign elements, they can be avoided if the immune system is slowed down. However this involves a risk. The person may be left prone to infection since there would be no immunity to fight. So this treatment could be administered only in the extreme cases. The conventional treatment would continue focusing on managing the symptoms of allergy.

This limitation has been ruled out by the BBSRC team led by Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck who has proven in its study that the allergic reaction can be hampered before the occurrence of the symptoms without affecting the immune system of the body by aiming at “p110delta”.

“P110delta” is a molecule, belonging to the family of eight proteins called ‘PI3Ks’.  These proteins control various biological functions of the body. Their involvement in various diseases including cancer makes them an important target for further research and development in producing an effective drug to combat these ailments.

The researchers tried to go behind the specific diseases associated with the eight members of the ‘PI3Ks’ proteins so that specific drugs could be developed with reduced side effects. They brought in use various genetic techniques to determine this.

In the recent study, the research confirmed that ‘p110delta’ is found to be playing more important role in allergic reactions than ‘p110gamma’, another member of the ‘PI3K’ family. So now they can be targeted to develop ‘p110delta’ blockers. Soon their clinical use can be expected to enter in the human arena.

Dr Khaled Ali, the lead researcher informed that ‘p110delta’, identified in 1997 had many apprehensions associated with it. However, the recent work has shown its ability to control the body’s reaction to an allergen and thus prevent the symptoms to occur.

This study has already confirmed that ‘p110delta’ is the key player among the ‘PI3K’ molecules. So Professor Vanhaesebroeck is quite hopeful that a drug could be developed very soon to combat the problem of allergies and a therapy could be devised for not only controlling the symptoms which occur in the body but also would be able to target the real causes.

This study promises to get a revolutionary way to fight against the allergies which cause misery to millions of human beings.

This article is the property of http://www.Healthpm.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed.

Immunotherapy or the ‘allergy shots’ is a typical kind of a treatment that affects the levels of sensitivity in human beings. This sensitivity is lowered down to substances known as the ‘allergens’.

Allergens like pollen, mold or animal dander, are substances that elevate the allergy symptoms in a human being when the allergy affected person is exposed to these substances.

In ‘immunotherapy’ the patients are injected with increased amounts of allergens in order to maintain a desired level of the target therapeutic dose. This process develops a resistance for certain specific allergens.

‘Immunotherapy’ is now an established treatment for preventing the development of new allergies in human beings. This therapy is also very helpful in preventing the progression of allergic disease from allergic rhinitis to asthma. Immunotherapy often leads to long-lasting relief from various allergy symptoms even after the treatment is stopped.

How Immunotherapy Works

Immunotherapy works almost like a vaccine. Patient’s body responds to the injected amounts of a particular allergen. This injecting is gradual with increasing doses. This process develops an immunity or increased tolerance to the allergens. As a result, allergy symptoms decrease or minimize when the patients are exposed to that allergy in the future.

The process of ‘Immunotherapy’ involves two phases.

Build-Up Phase

This phase involves receiving injections with increasing quantity of the allergens with a frequency of about one to two times per week. This phase would last depending upon the frequency of the injections received. Generally this frequency ranges from three to six months on a conventional build-up schedule.

Attainment of the target dose level may be possible in a much shorter span of time ranging from merely one day to even up to several weeks, depending upon the rapid build-up schedules. This approach is commonly called as the “cluster and rush.”

These quick and rapid build up schedules involve giving two or more injections each visit. This rate of injecting will in turn decrease the number of visits during the build-up phase. However, there always exists a greater risk for the patients who may also experience an adverse reaction.

Maintenance Phase

This phase starts immediately after the attainment of effective therapeutic dose level. The effective maintenance dose depends on the patient’s level of allergen sensitivity and his or her response to the immunotherapy build-up phase.

This phase would be reflecting comparatively longer periods of time span between the successive immunotherapy treatments, ranging from two to four weeks.

A patient may start observing and experiencing an improvement and a decrease in symptoms during the build-up phase, but it may normally take as long as 12 months on the maintenance dose to notice a real improvement.

The effectiveness of immunotherapy treatments are more related with the time span of the treatment and the amount of doses of allergens.

Patients should preferably see an allergist or an immunologist if they have some connection between asthma, rhinitis, conjunctivitis and exposure to an allergen. Having a very poor response to medications along with the persisting allergy symptoms are also suggestive stages for doing so.

This article is the property of http://www.Healthpm.com
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed.