Researchers May Have an Idea Where Pesky Seasonal Allergies Come From

As seasonal allergies flare up this fall, a recent study suggests the nervous system’s “memory” is responsible for triggering such reactions.

A group of researchers exposed mice to a variety of allergen stimulants and measured how their nerve cells developed a type of “memory” pathway when sending signals out to the body, according to a study published in the medical journal Immunity. These experiments caused the mice to develop immune system threat response and triggered allergic reactions to additional triggers.

“Anything that could activate the same pathway activates this memory response,” immunologist Caroline Sokol, an author of the study, told the Washington Post.

Sokol and her team of researchers observed that when they exposed the mice to a range of allergenic materials — dust mites and papaya extract — it put their nerve cells into a “primed” state where the cells became hypersensitive, the outlet reported Monday.

After continued subjection to allergenic materials the nerve cells triggered an even stronger immune response within the mice: severe itching and skin inflammation as an allergic reaction when exposed to other stimulants, the study found.

The mice did not have to be exposed to the same type of allergen trigger to generate the allergic reaction the researchers reported.

The process inside nerve cells responsible for this phenomenon is a protein complex called mTORC1, the researchers found, which could explain why many people have a response to a range of substances during allergy season, the study concluded.

Sokol and her colleagues hope to develop drugs that can target this underlying nervous system mechanism and relieve allergic reaction response, the Post reported.

But before they can find a way to better treat or prevent allergies, the team of researchers will need a better understanding of how the nervous system establishes such sensitization in the first place.

“Can we reverse it? These are important things that we’re testing,” Sokol told the outlet.

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