Uninhibited Eating

Eating a delicious meal is one of life’s great joys, but for some each mouthful is a struggle and a risk. Eosinophilic oesophagitis is a chronic food allergy in which immune cells called eosinophils amass in the oesophagus (the tube between mouth and stomach) and spark an allergic reaction. Research has shown that patients lack SPINK7, a protein that inhibits the premature breakdown of food material that might damage the oesophagus lining. Without this, the unprotected lining becomes degraded and eosinophils swarm to the site, causing inflammation. A new study has shown that treating mice with a replacement inhibitor (cells bound by the inhibitor in green in the mouse oesophagus pictured) reduced symptoms. The study confirms the mechanism behind the disease, which has only recently been recognised and disproportionately affects children, and points the way for future treatments.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work bty Nurit P. Azouz and colleagues, published on the cover of Science Translational Medicine, 27 May 2020
• Division of Allergy and Immunology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Published in Science Translational Medicine, May 2020