Shruti Dharmaraj, MS
Treating Allergies by Targeting Underlying Cellular Dysfunction
Summary
Allergies are a significant health burden in the United States, affecting over 50 million individuals annually. Current treatments like Claritin® or inhalers focus primarily on managing symptoms and are non-curative. When allergens like pollen enter our lungs, cells will “eat” the allergens and display pieces of them, called antigens, on the cell surface. This activates the immune system’s response, leading to symptoms like difficulty breathing and itchy eyes. When the immune system overreacts to an allergen, mitochondria — the “powerhouse” of the cell —can become dysregulated, affecting the production of small molecules called metabolites that are essential to mitigating the immune response. I will develop tiny drug carriers called nanoparticles derived from these metabolites to counter this metabolic dysfunction while also delivering antigens to the body to train it to ignore those allergens in the future. My preliminary data show these metabolite-based nanoparticles can effectively mitigate allergic disease. Not only will this research establish a new treatment for allergies, but it has the potential to treat other immune diseases with metabolic dysfunction.
Watch a Q&A with Shruti
I am honored and humbled to receive this fellowship to continue my dissertation work in the drug delivery field. The network of researchers will not only propel my research, but the support is a big boost and validation of my own abilities to continue being an impactful scientist in the future.
