10/07/2011 PERMALINK
Researchers design a molecule that can eliminate all allergies without side effects. Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have announced a breakthrough approach to allergy treatment that inhibits food allergies, drug allergies and asthmatic reactions without suppressing a sufferer’s entire immunological system. The therapy centers on a special molecule the researchers designed, a heterobivalent ligand (HBL), which when introduced into a person’s bloodstream can, in essence, out-compete allergens like egg or peanut proteins in their race to attach to mast cells, a type of white blood cell that is the source of type-I hypersensitivity (that is, allergy). “Unlike most current treatments, this approach prevents allergic reactions from occurring in the first place,” says Basar Bilgicer, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry and biochemistry and principal investigator in Notre Dame’s Advanced Diagnostics & Therapeutics initiative.