Researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have developed a new single injection stem cell treatment which may be a “cure” for asthma and allergies to bees, peanuts, seafood and other allergens which activate an immune response and cause severe difficulty breathing.
A mother’s worse nightmare is hearing her child gasping for breath. Imagine a single injection treatment that could completely “cure” asthma and eliminate allergic responses for a lifetime by changing the gene within ‘T’ cells which react to proteins in peanuts, seafood, and in bee venom.
In people who have allergies or asthma, the ‘T’ cells have developed a kind of immune ‘memory’ and have become resistant to treatment. Patients with asthma and allergies usually experience chronic respiratory problems and the potential of death due to anaphylaxis is very real. Allergic asthma affects approximately 235 million people worldwide.
Scientists working in gene therapy have taken blood stem cells and altered or wiped clean the ‘memory’ within the ‘T’ cell so they no longer respond to an allergen. As these new cells reproduce their cellular offspring are also free of the allergic ‘memory’ response meaning the new healthy cells only produce healthy cells that are non-reactive.
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