Gene Therapy Might One Day Cure Asthma

With the help of severely allergic live mice and up-to-date technology, a team of researchers at the University of Queensland may be close to finding a way to genetically prevent allergic responses from happening by using a single injection.

"We take blood stem cells, insert a gene which regulates the allergen protein and we put that into the recipient," said Professor Ray Steptoe, as reported by New Atlas. "Those engineered cells produce new blood cells that express the protein and target specific immune cells, 'turning off' the allergic response."

The researchers sought to address the reoccurring problem connected to the immune cells. Research has found that these cells known as the T-cells are prone to developing a schema of an allergen upon contact. This causes the cells to retain the memory thereby letting the allergic responses reoccur. The researchers at Queensland wanted to find a way to reset the memory of those cells. To do this, the team initially looked into an experimental asthma allergen and saw that gene therapy successfully "turned off" the allergic responses in infected live mice.

Considering the success of their initial investigation, Steptoe is said to believe that the same could be possible for a wide range of allergens. He further shared that the long-term goal of the study is to find a way to make something like a vaccine for specific allergies. Although the team could very well be close to their goals, they are still in the process of making the cure safer and simpler. Given that they have yet to conduct clinical trials on humans, Steptoe said that it might take another decade or so before the cure can be available to the public.

Regardless how long it might take them to fully develop their research, this study is undeniably one step closer to finding a cure for something that most people have suffered from most of their life. The full details of the study are published in JCI Insight.