Professor Kim In-sik at the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science at Eulji University, Euijeongbu, said he found a new allergen’s role to induce allergy to house dust mites.

The novel allergen was registered as “Der p 38” by the WHO/IUIS (International Union of Immunological Societies) Allergen Nomenclature Sub-committee. So far, 37 allergens have been found to trigger an allergy to house dust.

Kim tried classifying allergens that cause house dust allergy by determining whether they bind to Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, which plays an important role in the human’s innate immunity.

More than half of the subjects showed allergic reactions in a clinical trial on 60 people with allergies.

Kim is conducting a follow-up study of Der p 38 to develop an allergy-specific diagnostic biomarker. Conventional biomarkers detected allergic reactions only, but the new biomarker aims to identify the severity of the allergy.

“Thanks to the efforts and enthusiasm of graduate and undergraduate students, we could find a new allergen in this study,” Kim said. “I will work hard to study severe allergic diseases and develop immunotherapeutic drugs to cure allergic diseases.”

Kim’s study was published in the Journal of Immunology, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, and Frontiers in Immunology.