Allergies News and Research

Latest Allergies News and Research

Soft palate study reveals how flu viruses acquire the ability to move between people

National Institutes of Health scientists and their colleagues identified a previously unappreciated role for the soft palate during research to better understand how influenza (flu) viruses acquire the ability to move efficiently between people.

26 Sep 2015

Secondhand smoke exposure doubles risk of hospitalization for kids with asthma

The risk for hospitalization doubles for kids with asthma who are exposed to secondhand smoke, according to a study led by Mayo Clinic Children's Research Center. "The results of this review serve as a reminder to parents of just how dangerous it is to expose their children to secondhand smoke," says Avni Joshi, M.D., senior author and pediatric allergist and immunologist at Mayo Clinic Children's Center.

24 Sep 2015

Soft palate plays key role in viruses' ability to spread

Flu viruses come in many strains, and some are better equipped than others to spread from person to person. Scientists have now discovered that the soft palate -- the soft tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth -- plays a key role in viruses' ability to travel through the air from one person to another.

24 Sep 2015

Researchers design new type of nanocarrier to improve effectiveness of allergy shots

Whether triggered by cats, bees, pollen or mites, allergies are on the rise. And the bad news doesn't stop there. The only current therapy that treats their causes is allergen-specific immunotherapy -- or allergy shots -- which can cause severe side effects. Now, researchers report in Biomacromolecules the development of a potentially better allergy shot that uses nanocarriers to address these unwanted issues.

23 Sep 2015

New cell type appears to drive life-threatening food allergies

Researchers have discovered a new cell type that appears to drive life-threatening food allergies and may help explain why some people get severe allergic reactions and others do not.

22 Sep 2015

Research opens up potential new pathways to vaccine development against HA-MRSA

New research led by NYU Langone Medical Center has uncovered why a particular strain of Staphylococcus aureus -- known as HA-MRSA -- becomes more deadly than other variations. These new findings open up possible new pathways to vaccine development against this bacterium, which the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions says accounts for over 10,000 deaths annually, mostly among hospital patients.

10 Sep 2015

NEI experts explore long-term effects of Ebola on the eye

Following the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that took the lives of more than 11,200 people in the region, the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has deployed a team of clinicians and technical experts to Monrovia, Liberia to investigate the long-term effects of Ebola on the eye.

9 Sep 2015

Why do we sleep? An interview with Professor Wisden

It is true that we still do not know why we need to sleep every night. Sleep is essential for health. We have to do it every day. But nobody yet knows why. This fact amazes me.

8 Sep 2015

Scientists discover mechanism that could lead to new treatment for allergies

Most people with allergies have to take medication throughout their life: Their body "thinks" that proteins from the environment are so "strange" that they elicit an immune reaction. Until present, it was not possible to develop an efficient therapy so that the body "learns" to stop in an overreacting way.

8 Sep 2015

Researchers one step closer to developing synthetic and cheaper antivenoms

Researchers involved in an international collaboration across six institutions, including the University of Copenhagen and the National Aquarium of Denmark (Den Blå Planet), have successfully identified the exact composition of sea snake venom, which makes the future development of synthetic antivenoms more realistic.

4 Sep 2015

Researchers one step closer to developing asthma vaccine

Researchers at VIB (a leading life sciences institute in Flanders, Belgium) and Ghent University have successfully established a causal relationship between exposure to so-called farm dust and protection against asthma and allergies.

4 Sep 2015

New technology may allow mass production of flu vaccines

Vaccines to protect against an avian influenza pandemic as well as seasonal flu may be mass produced more quickly and efficiently using technology described today (Sept. 2) by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the journal Nature Communications.

3 Sep 2015

Regulatory T cells may reduce susceptibility to allergies

Susceptibility to allergies reduced by increased production of regulatory T cells. This is the main finding of a current study being conducted at the Institute of Immunology at MedUni Vienna, headed up by Winfried F. Pickl. The initial results of this study by Alina Neunkirchner, which looks at the root cause of the development of allergies, are being presented at the European Congress of Immunology, which starts in Vienna this Sunday (6 - 9 September 2015, Austria Center Vienna).

3 Sep 2015

UC San Diego-led research team awarded $1.89 million to carry out research on leptospirosis

An international research team, headed by Joseph Vinetz, MD, professor of medicine at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and director of the UC San Diego Center for Tropical Medicine and Travelers Health, has been awarded a 5-year, $1.89 million cooperative agreement to carry out translational research studies of leptospirosis, an infectious and sometimes fatal bacterial disease endemic in much of the world.

2 Sep 2015

Swecure receives US patent approval for preventive allergy treatment

Swecure, a research and development stage biotechnology company primarily focused on developing novel treatments for immunoregulatory diseases such as allergy, IBD and IBS, receives patent approval grant by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The invention relates to a use of bacterial superantigens for the prevention of allergy in children as well as a method for the prevention of inflammatory disorders.

1 Sep 2015

PRESTIGE study suggests novel target to prevent stent thrombosis

Recruitment of leukocytes is a hallmark of stent thrombosis, according to results from the PRESTIGE study presented today at ESC Congress and published in European Heart Journal. The findings suggest that immune cell mediated thrombotic processes may be a realistic target for novel therapies to prevent stent thrombosis.

1 Sep 2015

Scientists elucidate chemical process behind eosinophilic esophagitis

Scientists from the D'Or Institute of Research and Education, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Yale University School of Medicine have elucidated the chemical process behind a mysterious gastrointestinal disease that is becoming more frequent every day: the eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), also known as the "asthma of the esophagus".

1 Sep 2015