Exciting developments are underway in the sphere of allergy treatment which many hope will make tackling allergies much easier than ever before. A medical research firm based in the Greater Paris area, DBV Technologies

(DBV Technologies.com), aims to create a way of desensitizing allergy sufferers to antigens by means of a special patch called Viaskin. You can see here for more details of how the Viaskin patch works, but in short, it helps deliver antigens to the body in very small quantities. The idea is that over time, the patient’s allergic reactions become less and less severe. A key part of how this actually works are the Langerhans cells, which are pictured in the photograph below. These cells are located in the epidermis, meaning that they are amongst the first in line to come into contact with the antigens delivered by the Viaskin patch. They are very tolerogenic, in other words, they react less violently towards antigens. This makes them the perfect cells to get the body used to whatever antigens the individual is allergic towards.