Allergens stimulate the release of antibodies that attach themselves to mast cells causing these cells to release histamine, causing allergy symptoms like itching of the nose, skin and eyes, sneezing, and wheezing.

The characteristic "Th2 immune response" observed in allergy sufferers is an acquired immune response whose most prominent feature is high antibody production relative to the amount of cytotoxic T cells. Classical antihistamine drugs bind to but do not activate the histamine 1 receptor (H1R), subsequently blocking the allergic response.

Histamine was found to act as an attractant for T cells and with no H1Rs present for histamine to bind to, the T cells were not recruited to the lung or able to cause the characteristic inflammatory allergic response in these mice.

Such advancements in the understanding of the roles of histamine in allergic disease hold potential to currently available drugs that can suppress if not stop the action of histamine and deliver benefits to allergy patients.

This study is published in full in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Source: EurekAlert