Manipulation of pathogenic memory T cells for development of novel treatment for food allergy

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15524
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Pediatrics
• Research Institution: Gifu University
• Principal Investigator: MAEKAWA Yoichi 岐阜大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 教授 (10294670)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 病原性メモリーCD4 T細胞 / Notchシグナル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We examined the effect of depletion of food allergen-specific memory CD4 T cells (FA-memory T cells) for complete diminishment of recurrence of food allergy. When the allergen-immunized mice were treated with Notch signal inhibitor, we found that food allergy-related symptoms, diarrhea and anaphylaxis-induced death, were improved in these mice. However, we were not able to confirm the depletion of FA-memory T cells in those mice. On the other hand, we identified the unique memory-like CD4 T cells that were resistant to anti-CD4 antibody-dependent depletion. Furthermore, we found that those depletion-resistant CD4 T cells seem to contain FA-memory T cells to induce the recurrence of food allergy.

Free Research Field

感染免疫学