Recently, it was learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that the team of Professor Zhu Shu of this university has made new progress in the research of intestinal immunity, which provides a new direction for the treatment of food allergy.
How the body’s immune system recognizes self and non-self antigens has always been a core issue in immunology. The body has developed central tolerance mechanisms against self-antigens to prevent the immune system from attacking self-antigens. For non-self antigens, the immune system has developed a system that perceives pathogenic signals and initiates immune activation and clearance mechanisms, but for some harmless antigens to the human body, such as antigens from commensal microorganisms or food in the gut, the immune system will choose to induce peripheral Tolerance mechanism to avoid strong immune response to endanger itself. Among them, the mechanism of how food antigens are recognized and initiate immune tolerance has been unclear.
Schematic diagram of GSDMD molecules responding to pathogens and food antigens in different cells. (Photo provided by University of Science and Technology of China)
As a key executive protein that mediates pyroptosis, GSDMD protein has attracted extensive attention from scholars in the field in recent years. The non-pyroptotic function of GSDMD and the specific physiological roles it plays in the intestinal tract have also become scientific issues that need to be explored urgently.
In this research work, the researchers first carried out Western blot detection of GSDMD in various tissue cells under physiological conditions, and found that only the epithelial cells of the front small intestine could detect GSDMD in each tissue sample tested to a shear band about 13 kilodaltons in size.
After further exploration and research, the researchers established two groups of food tolerance models for mice with multiple gene expression backgrounds, namely peanut extract-induced peanut allergy model, chicken ovalbumin-induced delayed The hypersensitivity model finally confirmed that one of the physiological functions of GSDMD in the gut is to participate in the construction of host food tolerance. According to the researchers, this research work provides new ideas for the treatment of food allergies.
The relevant research results were recently published in the international authoritative academic journal “Cell”.
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