A designer cell-based histamine-specific human allergy profiler
A designer cell-based histamine-specific human allergy profiler
 Allergy is an abnormal response of our body's immune system towards certain harmless substances known as allergens in the natural environment. Generally, allergens reach our body through several pathways including respiratory system, digestive system or by direct skin contact. The immune system secretes cytokines and antibodies, in particular Immunoglobulin E, as a mechanism to combat hyper-stimulation caused by these allergens. The diagnostics of allergy is generally confirmed by skin prick test, blood test (for the quantification of specific, free IgE antibodies) or histamine release test. There are some drawbacks on using these tests including discomfort felt by the patients, large amount of samples needed for each test, and inconsistency of test results caused by variation of each kit. In a recent publication, David Ausländer’s and colleagues developed a mammalian cell-based allergy profiler that is capable of scoring the allergen-triggered release of histamine using whole-blood-derived human basophils. G protein couple receptors H1-4 (HRH1-4) is a transmembrane protein that transduce extracellular histamine signals to trigger the conversion of ATP to cAMP intracellularly. This second messenger binds and activates PCRE promoter to drive gene expression. With these characteristics in mind, the researchers then set up a histamine sensor device (HSD), which contain G protein couple receptor HRH2 and PCRE promoter reporter gene system in HEK293 cell. This allergy profiler was shown to be the most sensitive (2-4 nM) and have the widest detection range (1-10000 nM) of histamine in blood samples. In the not-too-distant future, the scientists believe that the designer cells could be used not only in allergy test but also in drug development and therapeutic purposes. arigo provides high sensitive IgE (ARG80774; ARG80216; ARG80248) and Histamine (ARG80459) ELISA kits for the identification of allergy reaction. As mentioned in the paper, the transcription factor cAMP response element-binding protein, CREB, could be phosphorylation by PKA and translocate into nucleus for downstream gene regulation. arigo ‘s Phospho-CREB Antibody Duo (ARG30098) will help investigating PCRE promoter-driven gene expression in this system. G protein couple receptors (GPCR) signaling pathway mediates various biological mechanisms in cells. |
