For many people, the receding cold and end of winter signifies not the coming of spring, but the arrival of a rather detested period of the year: allergy season.
Indeed nearly one-fifth of the total U.S. population suffers from congested noses, itchy eyes and rash-covered skin associated with almost every type of animal, plant and food imaginable.
While a mere annoyance for some, allergies can lead to more serious complications such as asthma and upper respiratory infections.
Additionally, allergic reactions are so commonplace now that even symptoms associated with other, more serious types of diseases are easily brushed off and ignored until it's too late.
The latest research conducted at the Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center showed that the protein known as Siglec-8 could play a major role in the development of novel treatments for allergies.
Siglec-8 can be found on the surface of many cells of the immune system, including eosinophils, basophils and mast cells.
In cases of allergic reactions, these cells deviate from their normal behavior and are hypersensitive, resulting in violent responses to harmless foreign substances.
Previous research indicated that the presence of this protein on the surface of eosinophils causes the cells to degenerate.
With this knowledge, Bruce Bochner, the director of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Hopkins School of Medicine, focused the project's attention on the activation of Siglec-8 protein on the surface of mast cells.
Results showed that mast cells reacted very differently than eosinophils in that they did not self-destruct when the protein Siglec-8 was activated.
They also released drastically lower amounts of histamine, prostaglandins and other substances that work to trigger allergic reactions.
The team found that cells with Siglec-8 activity caused airway constrictions that were 25 percent weaker than those found in an allergic response.
Cells expressing siglec-8 are uniquely able to decrease the allergic response in several ways. They do this in part by targeting eosinophils and preventing mast cells from releasing histamine.
This finding opens the door for Bochner's team to develop new ways to naturally activate the protein in the body and thereby reduce the severity of asthma and allergies.
