Enzyme involved in allergic diseases found

Enzyme involved in allergic diseases found

RICHMOND, Va., -- A U.S. research team says it has identi-
fied an enzyme involved in allergic reactions, possibly
providing a new target for the treatment of such maladies.
The scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, the
Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical
College in New York note allergic diseases such as asthma
and hay fever afflict about 30 percent of people in the
developed world -- and allergic reactions are the sixth
leading cause of chronic disease in the United States. The
team has demonstrated, for the first time, the role of a
proteolytic enzyme called ADAM10 that releases a major
allergy regulatory protein from the surface of cells and,
thereby, promotes a stronger allergic response. "Our re-
search, for the first time, may represent a treatment
strategy to prevent, rather than simply control, IgE-med-
iated allergy," said VCU Professor Daniel Conrad. IgE is
an antibody known to trigger Type I allergic disease.
"Understanding ADAM10's role in allergic disease makes it
a potential target for the design of drugs to treat asthma
and allergic disease." The research appears online in the
journal Nature Immunology