The role of the FOXP3 transcription factor in the immune regulation of allergic asthma英文电子书.pdf

The Role of the FOXP3 Transcription Factor in the Immune Regulation of Allergic Asthma Carsten B. Schmidt-Weber, PhD, and Kurt Blaser, PhD Address suppressing their IL-4–secreting counterparts [1••]. Further- Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), Obere Str. 22, more, specific immunotherapy, which is the only curative CH-7270 Davos, Switzerland. treatment of allergies, has been demonstrated to promote E-mail: carsten.schmidt-weber@siaf.unizh.ch Tregs [2•,3]. It also shows that it is possible to therapeutically Current Allergy and Asthma Reports 2005, 5:356–361 re-induce tolerance, which represents a major difference to Current Science Inc. ISSN 1529-7322 Copyright © 2005 by Current Science Inc. previous approaches to design treatment strategies. Instead of controlling inflammation, it is now attempted to support endogenous mechanisms of immune regulation, which will Unbalanced immune reactions against allergens are caused prevent the outbreak of inflammation. On the basis of this by Th2 cells, which are the basis of immunoglobulin E (IgE)- concept, it is important to find molecular targets to investi- mediated symptoms of allergy and asthma. Although Th2 gate Tregs and their origin. cells are essential for allergy, they are not sufficient to cause dis