For the first time, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have identified genetic components of dendritic cells that are key to asthma and allergy-related immune response malfunction. Targeting these elements could result in more effective drugs to treat allergic disorders and asthma, according to a study reported in the May edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

Dendritic cells are vital to immune response in that they recognize, capture and introduce threatening organisms to T lymphocytes - other immune cells that secrete potent proteins called cytokines that surround and destroy the invaders. However, the Pittsburgh team’s study goes further to illuminate a pathway that allergens use to act directly on dendritic cells to propel differentiation into the T lymphocytes that fight back. … Continue Reading »