A POTENTIALLY dangerous asthma treatment is poised to get safer. Patients on
immunotherapy get small but increasing doses of an allergen to desensitise their
immune systems and stop asthma attacks. But occasionally patients suffer
life-threatening anaphylactic shock.
Prem Bhalla’s team at the University of Melbourne has made tiny changes to a
ryegrass protein to disable the parts that stick to the IgE antibodies in the
airway capillaries and trigger asthma or shock. But the parts of the protein
that nudge the immune system towards tolerance are unaffected (European
Journal of Immunology, vol 32, p 270).
