Although in the current cold weather it seems a long way off, that wonderful time of the year is approaching where it starts to warm up, the grass starts growing, the blossoms start blooming. Wonderful, except if you suffer from hayfever and spring means constant checking of the pollen count and reaching for the tissues and anti-histamines.
Recent research reported on the Nature Newsblog indicates that one day hayfever sufferer’s may be reaching for nanomedicine to treat hayfever and other allergies. Specifically, buckyballs, round cage-like molecules of 60 carbon atoms about 1-10 nanometres in size, have been shown to help block the release of histamine, a molecule that causes inflammation . Experiments where human cells either with or without buckyballs were exposed to an allergen (like the pollen responsible for many cases of hayfever), showed that the cells treated with buckyballs released a lot less histamine compared to the untreated cells. Although a nanotech based therapy is still a long way off, the researchers hope to commence clinical trials in human subjects soon.
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