BTK Inhibitors Prevent Allergies
Written By: Pimtawan Jatupornpakdee
June 8, 2020
Each year, there are up to 50 million Americans who suffer from allergies. Allergy is a chronic illness with no current treatment. People who are exposed to allergens could experience an anaphylactic shock. Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening reaction that could occur after exposure to allergens. Patients around the world are seeking for a preventive way to avoid anaphylaxis if they were accidentally exposed to the allergen. Normally, patients with allergies would use epi-pens, which inject epinephrine into the patient’s body, for emergencies, but they found it inconvenient. To replace the use of epi-pens, researchers have tested another drug they assume to prevent allergies.
The drug used is called BTK inhibitors, also known as Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors. BTK are enzymes inside the cells, including mast cells which primarily react during anaphylaxis. The BTK inhibitors would inhibit or block the BTK enzymes in the cells. This could prevent allergies because the mast cells would also be blocked by the inhibitors. Therefore, the mast cells would not be triggered by the allergens. To test this assumption, scientists used three different BTK inhibitors on human mast cells inside a test tube, and the result was as expected.
Dr. Bruce Bochner, the Samuel M. Feinberg Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, says that people with extreme allergies and people who are about to undergo oral food desensitization can use the BTK inhibitors as a preventive method at the moment. In the future, Dr. Bruce Bochner and his team are considering whether the drug could be added to the epi-pens to be injected together with epinephrine.
Researchers believe BTK inhibitors can also be used for treatment in patients diagnosed with specific types of cancer who experience allergic reactions due to chemotherapy drugs. Dr. Jennifer Regan and Dr. Melanie Dispenza found that their cancer patients are taking the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib. Their patients were allergic to airborne allergens, most commonly cat dander and ragweed pollen. The results they found after one week was an 80-90 percent decrease in skin test reactivity. To further prove the research, Dispenza conducted another test involving adults with food allergy. The patients with food allergy took the drug for a few days, and the result corresponded with the previous study.
Currently, some patients with blood cancer, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma, take BTK inhibitors as an alternative treatment to chemotherapy. Although many studies have been published about the drug, it is not yet approved to be used on children. In the future, BTK inhibitors could be a solution to all kinds of allergies.
Comments