Cellular and Molecular Pathways Regulating Airway Mucosal Dendritic Cells During Onset of Allergic Airways Inflammation

Funded Activity Summary

Allergic airways inflammation (AAI), which leads to debilitating disease such as allergic asthma, is a condition medaited by the abnormal activity of the immune system towards essentially harmless inhlaed allergens. Two special cell types of the immmune system that are important in controlloing the onset and persistence of AAI are known as dendritic cells (DC) and T helper type 2 cells (Th2 cells). DC are located in all parts of the respiratory tract and are important in providing control signals to Th2 cells to become switched on and start to react to an inhaled allergen. Th2 cells then generate a variety of signals that initiate an cascade of immune responses towards the allergen that ultimately can lead to AAI and asthma if left unchecked, however this process remians relatively poorly understood. This project aims to examine how DC and Th2 interact, and at what level DC activity can be regulated so that unchecked Th2 immunity to harmless inhaled allergens can be controlled. The hope is to be able to identify new cellular and molecular pathways that can eventually become the target for new generations of preventative and therapeutic drugs.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $491,065.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Cellular Immunology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Th1/Th2 immune responses | allergen induced inflammation in the respiratory tract | cellular immunity | dendritic cell | dendritic cells | immunology/allergy | immunoregulation | mucosal immunity | mucosal inflammation

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