Dominion Post reporter Nikki MacDonald interviews the Wellington scientists who have found, and patented, a new vaccine for asthma.
The research – a collaboration between the Malaghan Institute and Victoria University’s Ferrier Research Institute – was published today in Nature Chemical Biology and shows that the vaccine prevents inflammation of the lungs and airways in mice.
If successful in humans, the vaccine will be a new way of suppressing allergies and could be expanded to other allergies and diseases.
Excerpt (read the article in full here):
Wellington scientists have patented a ground-breaking vaccine for asthma.
Trial results published today show the vaccine works in mice, preventing inflammation of the lungs and airways.
The vaccine is a novel way of dealing with allergies which, if successful in humans, could be expanded to other allergies and diseases.
The research, published in Nature Chemical Biology, was a collaboration between the Malaghan Institute and Victoria University’s Ferrier Research Institute.
Malaghan Institute vaccine therapy programme leader Ian Hermans said the successful mice trial results were exciting.
However, it would take at least five years of further research before the vaccine could be proven in humans.
Malaghan immune cell biology programme leader Franca Ronchese said the vaccine worked by stimulating the immune system to produce killer T-cells, which hunted down the dendritic cells that took up allergens and triggered inflammation.
“It’s like taking out the generals of the enemy’s army in order to overpower it.”