Core Project 4: Allergic toxicity

Core Project 4: Preclinical and clinical assessment of allergic toxicity of drug

Two types of idiosyncratic toxicity can be distinguished: allergic and non-allergic (or metabolic) idiosyncratic toxicity. Concerning allergic toxicity, important examples include the so-called hypersensitivity syndromes, which are associated with phenolic antiepileptics, sulfonamides, allopurinol, the protease inhibitor abacavir and other drugs. So far, the potential of a given drug to be associated with allergic toxicity can not be predicted. Allergic drug reactions are the result of activation of certain cell types of the innate or adaptive immune system. Drugs can for instance activate monocytes, basophils or T cells in an unspecific fashion. Drugs can also bind to the T cell receptor (TCR), potentially leading to activation of T cells, T cell proliferation and cytotoxicity. Regarding the clinical consequences of this type of drug toxicity, experimental systems able to predict the allergic potential of drugs would be very useful.

The objectives of this third core project are the following:                      

• To set up a test system for “unspecific” stimulation of cells of the immune system
• To set up a test system for the specific stimulation of cells of the adapative immune system
• To set up a test system for the assessment of basophil activation

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Last Updated on Monday, 09 February 2009 14:50 Created: Tuesday, 03 February 2009 16:19