Effects of allergens on dendritic cell function in allergic asthma

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In recent decades, there has been a nearly three-fold increase in the prevalence of allergic diseases such as asthma. Although the reason these diseases have increased in prevalence remains unknown, we suspect the way in which the immune system responds to foreign proteins in the environment may be very important in determining whether an individual develops allergic disease or not. How and why individuals with allergic asthma respond excessively and inappropriately to inhalation of a small range of seemingly innocuous proteins (allergens) is a central question in respiratory medicine and allergy. We propose that investigating the way that antigen presenting dendritic cells (DC) respond directly to allergens will shed important light on this issue, as DC are fundamental to our ability to deal with foreign antigens and to generate an appropriate immune response. The overall hypothesis underpinning this proposal is that allergens induce specific responses in DC from individuals with allergic asthma, and that this contributes to the maintenance and amplification of allergic tissue inflammation in this disease. Understanding the ways in which DC respond to clinically relevant allergens will lead to significant progress in understanding the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. This project was recommended for funding last year, but was relinquished when one of the previous co-investigators on last year's grant was awarded a Program grant.