Blood test to tell if babies at risk of allergies
May 24th, 2010 - 3:41 pm ICT by IANSSydney, May 24 (IANS) A simple blood test can now tell whether newborn babies are at high risk of developing allergies as they grow older, says a new research.
Tony Ferrante, professor and immunologist at the University of Adelaide, says the new marker may be the most significant breakthrough in allergy testing for some decades.
“A protein in the immune cells of newborns appears to hold the answer as to whether a baby will either be protected or susceptible to development of allergies later on,” says Ferrante.
Amounts of the cell signalling protein, called protein kinase C zeta, are much lower in children at risk of allergies.
Ferrante says the blood test is far more effective than previous indicators, such as a family’s clinical history, or measuring the allergy-inducing antibody IgE.
Working with Susan Prescott, professor from the University of Western Australia, Ferrante’s team has refined the new marker for allergy risk, originally discovered in 2007, but now modified to a simple blood test at birth.
The researchers are also looking at whether fish oil supplements given to both pregnant women and those who have just given birth can reduce the risk of the children developing allergies, said an University of Adelaide release.
“There is evidence that the levels of this important protein increase with fish oil supplementation to protect against allergy development,” says Ferrante.
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Tags: allergy testing, antibody, blood test, children at risk, clinical history, ferrante, fish oil supplements, high risk, immune cells, immunologist, marker, may 24, newborn babies, newborns, pregnant women, prescott, protein kinase c, university of adelaide, university of western australia, zeta