A team of researchers from the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID) , São Paulo, Brazil, have successfully demonstrated that increased amount of a protein, Blimp-1 prevents progression into allergic asthma. This protein acts on CD4 + Th9 cells to prevent production of IL-9, a cytokine responsible for induction of airway allergic asthma. This study has important implications in the development of drugs that will boost BLIMP-1 expression to cure asthma.
Drugs currently prescribed for the treatment of allergic asthma, such as anti-histamines, bronchodilators, and corticosteroids, aim to inhibit allergic symptoms only. In this study, the authors wanted to investigate the role of a protein, Blimp-1 in effective resolution of allergic airway inflammation. First, the authors used conditional knock-out (Blimp-1 deleted in T cells) and healthy control mice and injected them with…
