Towards a vaccine against allergic asthma? Scientists from Inserm, the CNRS and the Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier University of the Infinity laboratory, the Institut Pasteur and the French company NEOVACS are developing a new vaccine against this disease.
Four million people suffer from asthma in France, according to Public Health France, a public body under the Ministry of Health. how do you remember a declaration of the Inserm dated this Tuesday, 50% of the cases are allergic. This chronic bronchial disease causes attacks of respiratory discomfort which, in the case of allergic asthma, are triggered by exposure to different allergens (mites, pollen, mold, etc.).
restrictive treatments
There are medications to control asthma. But “when conventional treatments don’t work, we have to turn to new treatments called biotherapies, which are given by injection,” allergist Madeleine Epstein told BFMTV. “It’s a little restrictive.”
That’s why a team of French researchers began work several years ago to develop a vaccine against allergic asthma. The latest advance was made known in February, with a study published in the scientific journal allergy.
In its press release, Inserm explains that the teams “have shown that this vaccine was effective in producing antibodies capable of neutralizing key human immune proteins in the onset of allergic asthma, the cytokines IL-4 and IL-13.”
Less inflamed bronchi in mice
To reach this conclusion, the researchers injected their vaccine into mice with asthma allergic to dust mites. They found a “significant” antibody response and an effect on asthma symptoms.
In particular, this takes the form of “much less inflamed bronchi” in vaccinated mice, Laurent Reber, research director at Inserm and head of the team working on this project, described to BFMTV.
“It is a therapeutic vaccine, that is, a vaccine that will be directed at patients who already have asthma and severe asthma,” he adds.
Beyond asthma, the tested vaccine offers “a prospect of reducing the symptoms of allergies linked to other factors, since this vaccine targets molecules involved in different allergies,” says Pierre Bruhns, head of the Antibodies in Therapy unit. and pathology of the Institut Pasteur, in a press release from Inserm. The next step: human trials, currently under discussion.
Source: BFM TV
