Asthma is speculated to affect more than 350 million people or 5% of the world’s population across the globe. It is a condition in which our airways tight and swell and may produce an extra amount of mucus than a normal amount. For some people, asthma is a minor problem. For others, it can be a major problem that meddles with their daily activities and may drive them to a life-threatening asthma attack.
The common symptoms of this include shortness of breath chest tightness, Wheezing when exhaling-which is a common sign of asthma in children, Trouble sleeping caused by shortness of breath, coughing, or wheezing.
The main cause of asthma is the poor air quality in the region your currently residing in. Although causes like anxiety, stress, and allergens like pollens are known to cause asthma, the former one is more precise and accurate according to the majority of studies.
When airways are exposed to allergens, the generation of immune molecules like immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies and type 2 cytokines such as interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13) is triggered. These immune molecules cause the respiratory tract to begin overproducing mucus and white blood cells called eosinophils.
Clinicians and patients have largely relied on corticosteroids to constrain asthma symptoms. But for those with severe asthma, those drugs aren’t adequate to control the chronic disease. Monoclonal antibodies that target the overproduced immune molecules like IgE are sometimes efficient at relieving these symptoms. But that approach is expensive and requires a lifetime of doses. This is where kinoid come to the rescue!
The newly-developed conjugate vaccine is called a kinoid, in which recombinant cytokines IL-4 and IL-13 were linked with a common carrier protein used in vaccines called CRM197, a sort of diphtheria that’s been mutated to be non-toxic.
In preclinical mouse figures, the vaccine generated the production of antibodies that target IL-4 and IL-13. Six weeks post-injection, 90 percent of mice had high levels of these healing antibodies. One year after the initial injection, 60 percent of the animals carried antibodies that were still able to neutralize IL-4 and IL-13.
The vaccine showed that it may reduce asthma symptoms as well. The researchers found that the mucus production, eosinophil, and IgE levels all decreased in mice modeling allergic asthma caused by dust mites that were treated with the vaccine. Now, the researchers will be able to move to clinical testing.
The researchers also showed an effect on asthma symptoms: the vaccine was able to strongly decrease levels of IgE, eosinophilia, mucus production, and airway hyperresponsiveness in a model of dust mite allergic asthma. This study, therefore, suggests both the prophylactic and therapeutic efficacy of the vaccine in this model of asthma, and no adverse effects were observed in the animals.
References:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-05/ip-aav051721.php
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/all.14972
Featured Image retrived from:
https://theconversation.com/why-canada-should-introduce-universal-drugs-coverage-79824
