For millions of people around the world, asthma is a constant struggle. It’s not just about wheezing or coughing—it’s a chronic condition where the immune system overreacts to harmless things in the air, like dust, pollen, or pet dander.
Traditional treatments like inhalers and steroids help control symptoms, but they don’t fix the root cause: the immune system attacking what it should ignore.
But what if we could teach the immune system not to overreact in the first place?
A new study from researchers at New York University and the University of Chicago offers a promising answer. The team, led by Dr. Jeffrey Hubbell and published in Science Translational Medicine, has developed a new therapy that works by tapping into the immune-regulating power of an unexpected organ: the liver.
When we breathe in allergens, people with asthma experience an immune system overload. Their airways swell, tighten, and produce too much mucus. This is because their immune system sees the allergens as dangerous invaders, even though they’re not.
There are already treatments that try to retrain the immune system. For example, allergy shots expose people to small amounts of allergens over months or years to help the body build tolerance. But these treatments are slow, don’t always work, and can be risky—they might even trigger severe allergic reactions.
The new therapy, called liver-targeted immunotherapy (LIT), works in a completely different way. Instead of fighting against the immune system, it works with it—using the liver’s natural ability to teach the body what not to attack.
The liver has a special role in the immune system. It regularly handles harmless substances from food and the blood and prevents the immune system from attacking them. Hubbell’s team wondered: Can we use this same ability to stop the immune system from reacting to allergens?
To do this, the researchers added sugar molecules (called mannose) to the allergens. This helped the allergens go straight to the liver, bypassing the immune system’s usual defense triggers. Once in the liver, the allergens were processed in a way that told the immune system: this is safe—leave it alone.
When tested in mice with asthma, just two doses of this treatment trained their immune systems to ignore the allergens. These mice had fewer asthma symptoms and less airway inflammation for a whole year—a big improvement over traditional treatments, which often require ongoing use and offer short-term relief.
Even more exciting, the treatment appeared to be safer. Normal allergen treatments can sometimes cause dangerous reactions. But in the study, the mannosylated allergens (the ones with sugar added) did not cause any allergic response in mice already sensitive to the allergens.
Instead, the liver quietly handled them, leading to a gentler and more effective immune response.
Dr. Jorge Emiliano Gómez Medellín, one of the lead authors, pointed out that this approach might not just help with asthma. It could be useful for treating food allergies or skin conditions like eczema.
Since the therapy encourages the immune system to become more tolerant, it might even help with autoimmune diseases—where the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues.
The next step is testing LIT in humans, starting with common allergens like dust mites and foods. If it works in people as well as it did in mice, this could be a game-changer—offering quick, long-lasting, and safe relief from allergic diseases.
For over 100 years, allergy treatment has focused on slowly getting the immune system used to allergens. LIT flips this idea on its head by guiding allergens to the liver and letting the body’s natural tolerance system do the work.
As Dr. Hubbell puts it, “Instead of forcing the immune system to change, we’re working with its own rules. This could be the future—not just controlling asthma symptoms, but curing the disease at its source.”
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The research findings can be found in Science Translational Medicine.
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