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Belgian Scientists Inhibit Protein Responsible For Allergic Reactions (ugent.be)

lhunath writes: Scientists at the University of Gent exposed the TSLP protein's function in triggering allergic reactions such as asthma and eczema. The team then developed a protein-based inhibitor used to capture TSLP and prevent its bioactivity as it associates with its natural receptors. Using this method, allergic reactions can be inhibited before they are triggered.
The team's results were recently published in Nature, where they share a vision that their work "will guide therapeutic approaches that manipulate human TSLP-mediated signalling to treat allergic diseases."

5 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Coming soon by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was discovered by a university, not a commercial drug lab. Either way, this is nothing to sneeze at.

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    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. Exciting! by ohnocitizen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Efforts to get at the root cause of allergies are exciting, and pose the possibility of treatment with fewer or no side effects (an improvement), more effective treatment (and improvement) or even a cure (massive improvement). Yet most of the comments are inane observations about how "fragile" humans are(so should we just stop researching diseases and disorders then?), "now what?" (there will be more research and hopefully practical results!), or about the massive expense, or another tiresome variation of how "this isn't news or doesn't belong on slashdot". Slashdot's community used to be insightful and fun. Now you're more likely to see knowledgeable comments and wit over on reddit. Slashdot seems to have become a refuge for aging techies with a naive libertarian view of the world, an irrational hatred of "sjw's", and a general cynicism. What a waste of what was once a fun place to get news for nerds and read comments that ADDED to the news.

  3. No *all* allergies by gringer · · Score: 5, Informative

    This won't prevent all allergic responses. We've carried out research that indicates there are at least two types of allergic responses, one TSLP-dependent and another Interferon alpha-dependent:

    https://growkudos.com/publicat...

    The TSLP response seems to be most associated with chemical-related irritants (e.g. cinnamon oil, SLS), while the IFN-a response seems to be most associated with small organism irritants (e.g. house dust mites, parasites).

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    Ask me about repetitive DNA
  4. Re:Coming soon by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Informative

    So, the same as Purdue with Oxycontin ... public research and expenses, private profits.

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    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  5. Re:Coming soon by staalmannen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am not on this study but it is a close colleague of mine (in the same lab) that has made the TSLP trap. It is NOT an antibody. Basically, he fused the extracellular parts of the receptor and the co-receptor into a single fusion protein, which binds TSLP very efficiently and does not release it for a very long time. This recombinant protein can be produced in large quantities, so the production costs will especially depend on the manufacturing standards for biologicals The "golden standard" benchmark that they compare their fusion protein TSLP trap with is an antibody though.