CD23-mediated immunotherapy on airway inflammation

描述（由申请人提供）：过敏性气道炎症，如哮喘，是由支气管炎症引起的日益重要的疾病，其特征在于支气管高反应性和间歇性气道阻塞，气道中存在潜在的Th2细胞偏向性炎症反应。目前使用支气管扩张剂或抗炎药物（如皮质类固醇、白三烯调节剂和抗IgE治疗等）治疗该疾病。然而，目前的治疗方法无法治愈，一些患者对强烈的抗炎治疗反应不佳。此外，长期使用类固醇可能会导致许多不希望的副作用。因此，迫切需要探索新的、更有效的干预策略。靶向Th2细胞及其产物的功能已被提出作为开发潜在的过敏性哮喘独立治疗的有效策略。在疾病发展早期减少或消除过敏原特异性Th2细胞预期可减少反复过敏性炎症的后果。因此，有效地将免疫调节蛋白递送到气道中可以有效地和直接地干扰变应原特异性Th2细胞在其功能的最早阶段的激活。然而，排列在气道内的极化的上皮单层形成粘膜屏障，其不受大分子扩散的影响。这种屏障对于有效递送免疫调节蛋白以接近气道中的潜在免疫效应细胞（例如Th2细胞）并与之交叉作用造成了主要困难。我们最近的研究表明，人CD23受体在功能上能够转运IgE抗体穿过人肺和支气管上皮细胞。在这项研究中，我们进一步提出了研究的可行性，CD2提供免疫调节蛋白，这是有针对性的干扰CD4 Th2细胞功能，通过气道粘膜屏障在小鼠过敏模型。因此，这些研究很有可能导致大大改进的新疗法，从而预防和治疗哮喘和过敏性疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Allergic airway inflammations, such as asthma, are an increasingly important disease caused by bronchial inflammation and characterized by bronchial hyper-responsiveness and intermittent airway obstruction with an underlying Th2 cell-biased inflammatory response in the airways. The disease is currently treated with bronchodilators or anti- inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids, leukotriene modifiers, and anti-IgE therapy, etc. However, the current treatments are not curative and some patients do not respond well to intense anti-inflammatory therapies. Additionally, the use of long-term steroids may result in many undesired side effects. For this reason, novel and more effective intervening strategies are greatly needed and explored. Targeting of the functions of Th2 cells and their products have been proposed as an effective strategy for the development of potential stand-alone treatments for allergic asthma. The reduction or elimination of allergen-specific Th2 cells in early disease development is expected to reduce the consequences of repeated allergic inflammatory. Hence, efficient delivery of immunotherapeutic proteins into the airway tract could effectively and directly interfere with allergen-specific Th2 cell activation in its earliest phaseof function. However, the polarized epithelial monolayer lining the airway forms mucosal barrier which is impervious to macromolecule diffusion. This barrier poses a major difficulty for an efficient delivery of immunotherapeutic proteins to access and cross-talk with underlying immune effector cells, such as Th2 cells, in the airway. Our recent studies have shown that human CD23 receptor is functionally capable of transporting IgE antibody across human lung and bronchial epithelial cells. In this study, we further propose to examine the feasibility of CD2 to deliver the immunotherapeutic proteins, which are targeted to interfere with CD4 Th2 cell function, across airway mucosal barrier in a mouse allergy model. These studies, therefore, are very likely to lead to greatly improved novel therapies that protect against and potentially cure asthma and allergic diseases.