MeDALL making promising progress, project partners report
The causes behind the epidemic of IgE-associated (allergic) diseases remain unclear but researchers working on an EU-funded project that aims to generate novel knowledge on mechanisms of allergy initiation with a particular focus on childhood will hopefully help gain some clarity in this area. And the results so far look promising. At the second annual MeDALL ('Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy') project meeting, held in Paris at the end of January, researchers and project stakeholders took stock of the main activities that took place in 2011. MeDALL is supported by EUR 11,990,939 of funding under the 'Health' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and brings together researchers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The overall aim of the project is to achieve novel definitions of phenotypes of allergic diseases to understand how a network of molecular and environmental factors can lead to complex allergic phenotypes. The main achievements so far from the various work packages were presented. So far the team has successfully built a pooled database of recent ongoing longitudinal birth cohorts on allergy-related phenotypes (food allergy, atopic dermatitis, rhinitis and asthma). They used historical data from the 14 MeDALL birth cohorts, from all over Europe, making this study unique in terms of geographical variability. The data of 22,417 children aged 4 and 18,975 children aged 8 have been included. Based on this pooled database the prevalence of the classical phenotypes using previously agreed definitions was analysed for each age period in the pooled data and also per cohort, as well as according to IgE availability. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the collection of biological samples in the birth cohorts have been developed and published, and a new common questionnaire on symptoms, treatment and physical activity was created and digitalised. A microarray comprising 176 different proteins was designed in 2011; this means that a large number of samples from the birth cohorts can be tested and sensitisation profiles can be determined in a single step. Another area the researchers have investigated is methylation. If genes undergo methylation, the addition of a methyl group to a substrate or the substitution of an atom or group by a methyl group, their transcription and expression could be inhibited. To investigate this hypothesis, a systematic literature search to identify candidate genes for allergy was performed. The methylation sites will be identified in the selected genes later during the project. The aim is to better understand the role of the epigenetic mechanism in the development of allergic diseases. Another achievement is the construction of a house dust mite model of asthma which is amenable to modification by epigenetic modifiers. A T-cell receptor transgenic mouse has also been constructed. As well as these results presentations, at the annual meeting the MedDALL project participants also took part in a session on mechanistic studies and integration, where the MeDALL approach for epigenetics was further presented, as well as the IgE microarrays in MeDALL and integration of subjects and samples. Another goal of the project is to investigate ethical issues surrounding research involving children. MeDALL will provide new insights about how to deal with consent and disclosure of information.For more information, please visit: MeDALL: http://medall-fp7.eu/(opens in new window)
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United States