Allergies Linked to Gene, Skin Protein

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - Allergies like dermatitis, hay fever and asthma have been linked by German scientists to a gene found in 8 percent of Europeans.

The study, released Wednesday, said the lack of the protein filaggrin is the reason behind skin allergies. It was based on observations by the Munich Helmholtz Center and the Technical University of Munich of 3,000 Munich school children.

If a patient has certain variants of the gene, he has three times higher chances of suffering from atopic dermatitis and to develop hay fever. Some variants cause dandruff and contact dermatitis, which results to rashes caused by nickel jewelry.

Filaggrin is vital to form epidermis, the hard outer layer of human skin. After releasing the study, German scientists said their next step would be to come up with a skin cream that would promote production of the gene or provide a substitute for it.

Meanwhile, a British immunologist-biologist of the University of Nottingham is experimenting with hookworm as a possible solution for allergies. He tried out the solution based on observations in Papua New Guinea in the late 1980s that the natives infected with the Necator americanus hookworm were hardly affected by autoimmune-related ailments such as hay fever and asthma.

David Pritchard explained, quoted by the International Herald Tribune, "The allergic response evolved to help expel parasites, and we think the worms have found a way of switching off the immune system in order to survive... That's why the infected people have fewer allergic symptoms."