The end of the year 2007 is approaching very fast. I can already vote for the best allergy paper in 2007 – it is a paper from Vienna by Victoria Leb about the molecular and functional analysis of the Ambrosia antigen T cell receptor. They have been able to isolate and transfer alpha (TRAV17-TRAJ45) and beta chain (TRBV18,TRBD1 and TRBJ2-7) TCR chains into Jurkat cells and even other human blood lymphocytes with convicing evidence that the infected cells were Ambrosia Art V1 reactive.
This opens brand new perspectives for developing a truely allergic TCR transgenic mouse that can be easily challenged and desensitized. It may even allow immediate testing of a variety of substance (and constructs) to ultimately cure allergy. My favorite is to feed DCs with antigen coupled to a T cell suicide program on succesfull antigen presentation.