DETECTING AND ELUCIDATING THE ROLE OF TYPE 2 POLARIZED ALLERGEN-SPECIFIC MEMORY B CELLS

Abstract

Food allergic reactions occur when a harmless food antigen is ingested, and an unwarranted immune response is evoked. Specifically, the immune system generates IgE antibodies specific to food, which arise from long-lived allergen-specific memory B cells. The key goal of this thesis was to develop tools to detect and characterize long-lived allergen- specific memory B cells, to then be used as a biomarker to evaluate a therapy’s capacity to modify and/or eliminate these cells. In this thesis, we first developed the tools to identify rare allergen-specific B cells. We then utilized these tools to define a phenotype of allergen- specific memory B cells unique to allergy. Lastly, we used a potentially transformative treatment (anti-IL-4Rα antibodies) to interrogate whether reprogramming of these allergen- specific memory B cells from a pathogenic to a non-pathogenic cell could be achieved. Altogether this work revealed a key biomarker of IgE memory and a potential disease transformative treatment option.