LONDON, Jul 20 (Reuters) - Miserable summers of itchy eyes, running noses
and sneezing may become a thing of the past after US scientists reported a
breakthrough in the fight against allergies on Wednesday.
The research "could lead to the development of a new class of drugs that
attack allergies at their source, preventing ...the itching, sneezing and
congestion of allergies, the life-threatening respiratory distress of asthma and
anaphylactic shock," the researchers said in a statement.
"Today's commercial drugs only treat symptoms once the allergic response is
under way," the scientists said as their research was published in the journal
Nature.
Using X-rays, they determined how two important molecules involved in
allergic responses--antibodies and mast cell receptors--interacted.
"In order to design drugs effectively, a chemist needs to know the structure
and shape of the target molecules. Our discovery provides a three-dimensional
image of how the two molecules interact. This is valuable information in the
world of drug design," one of the scientists, Theodore Jardetzky, said.
