A research team at MedUni Vienna, working in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has discovered how certain dust mite allergens activate a well-known inflammatory factor – serum amyloid A protein –and can thus “trim” the lung tissue “in the direction of allergy”. The results were recently published, and in time for World Allergy Week 2020 (28.6.-4.7. 2020 / worldallergy.org), in the top journal Nature Immunology.
The scientists led by Ursula Smole and Winfried F. Pickl from MedUni Vienna's Institute of Immunology have discovered that the protein serum amyloid A1 (SAA1) is released by lung epithelial cells in a less active, bundled form and remains inactive until a binding partner (usually certain bacteria) breaks this bundle down into its subunits. This gives rise to an active, inflammatory form of SAA1, which normally fights bacteria.
meduniwien.ac.at/web/en/abo...
Nature Immunology link:
