A vaccine against asthma and allergy?

Explaining the principle behind this vaccine Institute Director Professor Graham Le Gros said “We don’t know why the immune systems of individuals with asthma or food allergy respond to house dust mites and food proteins as though they were parasites. But what we do know from our research is that if we shut down the Th2 immune response before it gets going, we can prevent the development of asthma and allergy symptoms”.

The work at the Malaghan Institute complements past research that showed a decrease in allergy and asthma symptoms in young children who had received immunisation against some infectious diseases when compared with their unimmunised peer group.