Why Do Children Need Allergies?

A research team at the Montreal Children’s Hospital from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is bringing individuals with seasonal allergies hope with a potential vaccine that nudges the immune system response away from developing allergies. The findings published in the journal Mucosal Immunology have major clinical implications since allergies and asthma are lifelong conditions that often start in childhood and for which there is presently no cure. The reasons why allergies develop remain unexplained, but it is believed that all children are born with the potential to develop allergies. Children without allergies make a shift to non-allergenic immune response when alleges are around. Those who do develop allergies have not shifted by the time they exposed to the allergy.

In addition, they also hoped to prevent the allergy entirely. To accomplish this, they developed an inhibitor peptide called STAT6-IP that was given to newborn mice by intranasal droplet. The purpose of this nasal spray was to teach the immune system, before the allergies are present. The results of this experiment were that many of the baby mice were not allergic to anything, since the immune system “learned” to tolerate allergens. This district approach redirects the immune system the immune system away from the allergic response and then it will not matter if the child is exposed to pollen, cats, or dogs, because the immune system will not form an aggressive allergic reaction