As a sign of its commitment to sustainable development and to well-being and health, Balsan, the French leader in the manufacture of textile floor coverings, has chosen to support the research of the Pasteur Institute, and in particular the Molecular Allergology research unit led by Dr Marc Daëron.

“Whilst developing the Balsan SilverCare range, we realised that we could go even further. A product that limits the presence of dust-mite allergens is the first step, but supporting research is even better! Balsan is proud to be able to say to each of our clients that by buying one of our products they are contributing to the progress of the Pasteur Institute’s work”. Gilles Guillaume, President of Balsan.

Because they have continued to increase over the last 40-50 years, in both their frequency and their severity. They have become a serious health problem in developed countries. Allergy research has taken pride of place at the Pasteur Institute, where the first anti-histamine was discovered, in the Immunology Department, where the function (both normal and abnormal) of the immune system is studied, and in the Medical Centre, where consultations with a large number of allergy patients take place. Since we don’t understand their cause, we only know how to treat the symptoms of allergies, which only has limited success and is not without side-effects. We therefore need to research and understand the reasons for the differences between the immune responses of allergy patients and those of patients with normal immune systems. Our aim in the long run is obviously to develop treatments for the causes of allergies.

We are principally trying to understand how antibodies work, that is, how they bring about biological changes. Antibodies don’t actually do much on their own. In order to work, they have to attach themselves to receptors on cells, and this triggers their biological activity. We have discovered that, according to which cells and which cell receptors the antibodies attach themselves to, the same antibodies can have opposite effects. Antibodies, in effect, do not always protect the body; they can also induce lesions. This means that it is the antibodies which have been activated by cells filled with pro-inflammatory substances, like histamine, which cause allergic reactions. Deciphering the inter-cellular signals they induce, and dissecting the mechanisms which take place, as well the intricacies of antibodies and how they determine the nature and intensity of cellular responses; analysing the dialogue which takes place between cells and understanding the resulting biological effects are among some of the objectives on which our understanding of a number of illnesses relies. These include allergies, but also auto-immune diseases, infections, cancers, and, of course, the development of new vaccines.

Several laboratories are working on the mechanisms responsible for clinical symptoms which allergy sufferers experience. Meanwhile, we are focusing our efforts on the systems which control these mechanisms. We think that individuals who do not suffer from allergies despite possessing everything required to do so, have special mechanisms in place which efficiently suppress the emergence of symptoms. Our hypothesis is that, for some unknown reason, these mechanisms are deficient in allergy sufferers. Our aim is to research and identify the weakness or weaknesses in the mechanisms and, if need be, develop a means to correct this. The problem is obviously not the same if the allergies result from the excessive stimulation or the inefficient regulation of the activity of the responsible cells.