Hope for new allergy drugs
Wednesday December 22nd, 2010
Scientists at two British universities are embarking on a major project to develop new anti-allergy drugs.
Researchers
say they have found a "novel chemical series" that shows promise
as a new treatment to prevent allergy.
The chemicals are known as Allergen Delivery Inhibitors, ADIs, and are said to target the substances that trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks directly.
The work at St George's, University of London, and Manchester University has now gained an award of £390,000 in funding from the Wellcome Trust.
The researchers started off with a £4 million grant last year to investigate ADIs - and they say this has enabled them to identify the novel chemical series.
Their first target will be house dust mites, blamed for much allergy and asthma in the home.
Researcher Professor Clive Robinson, from St George’s, University of London, said the scientists had so far made "outstanding progress".
He said: "Existing medicines target the allergy cascade at a lower, more complex level where success in the discovery of new drugs that modify allergic diseases is notoriously hard to achieve. At present, patients have to rely on therapeutic approaches which have seen no fundamental advances in the past 20 years.
"Used alone or in combination with existing treatments, our investigations indicate that they should improve the quality of life for many patients with allergic disease and may enable some to manage without any other form of treatment.
"Additionally, ADIs may provide relief for some patients who do not respond well to existing medicines."
Tags: Allergies & Asthma | UK News
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