He found that in the gut of susceptible mice, dendritic cells have stopped producing interleukin-12.
Preliminary findings suggest the dendritic cells in individuals with a food allergy are also longer lasting.
They found that in allergic mice the dendritic cells are much longer lasting than normal, which over-stimulates the immune system.
Dr Nicoletti is also working with researchers in Ireland to identify whether similar characteristics can be found in human dendritic cells.
Sipuleucel-T's main drawback is that each treatment has to be handcrafted to the individual receiving it, using dendritic cells from his own body.
In the latest study, he compared the activity of dendritic cells in the gut and in the spleen of allergic and allergy-resistant mice.
And the researchers found that their modified dendritic cells responded far more powerfully to the cells or viruses for which they had been primed.
They took these "dendritic" cells and added proteins from various types of cancer, or viruses, using a bird virus to transport the proteins into the dendritic cells.
Very soon after dendritic cells encounter germs via their TLR the process of acquiring pieces of the germ is actually increased before it is switched off by the time the dendritic cell reaches a lymph node, he said.
"This information could be used to enhance the potency of vaccines against germs or even tumours if, for example, we could find a way to deliver them along with molecules that stimulate TLR to dendritic cells in the skin, " he said.
Among them are neural cells to treat spinal cord injury and degenerative nervous system diseases, cardiomyocytes to treat heart disease, pancreatic islet cells to treat diabetes, dendritic cells for cancer therapy, chondrocytes for arthritis, osteoblasts to rebuild bone and hepatocytes for drug discovery and liver failure.
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