Researchers have discovered a novel molecule that prevents T-cells from triggering asthma brought on by allergens, a finding that could treat the nearly 25 million Americans who suffer from the chronic disease.
"We have identified a synthetic molecule, a sulfate monosaccharide, that inhibits the signal that recruits T-cells to the lungs to start an asthma attack," said Minoru Fukuda, adjunct professor in the Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Program at Sanford-Burnham, in a statement. "The molecule substantially lessened asthma symptoms such as inflammation, mucus production, and airway constriction."
The study, published May 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed in a mouse model of asthma that the synthetic sulfate monosaccharide blocks an interaction between chemokine CCL20--a T-cell signaling protein--and heparin sulfate, a molecule that protects and immobilizes CCL20 on epithelial cells in the lung.
Blocking this interaction stalled T-cells that are typically involved in inflammation from activating. Mice had similar reactions when the molecule was administered intravenously as well as by inhalation.
Not every asthma patient gets relief from currently available medications, so there is still a need to find new therapies.
Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces in Germany, the Free University of Berlin, Japan's Shinshu University, and the University of California, San Diego collaborated on the research.
- read the press release