Scientists at Dundee University have discovered a gene that causes an over-excited immune response and appears to link asthma, hay fever, eczema, and peanut allergy. The researches think that mutated filaggrin genes lead to damaged outer skin layers, which allow the easy entry of allergens.

Professor Irwin McLean, leader of the research team, explains, ‘If you imagine, someone who has this very leaky, porous skin, has allergens flying through it the whole time and that is completely inappropriate. So your immune system is being assaulted all the time from the minute you are born in a way that it should not be. Then how your immune system responds determines how many other diseases you develop.’

Read the full article in The Herald.