Knockout of the Week: Allergy Molecule Makes You Dumb

Image: Bas van de Wiel

A new column at Inkling, we’ll be calling attention to one particularly interesting knock out (KO) study every week. Un petit refresher: in knock out research, scientists genetically engineer organisms in order to stop a particular gene from functioning - they knock it out. The hope is that by silencing its activity, they’ll be able to figure out what it does.  Or not.

This week we turn out attention to a team of researchers at Zhejiang University in China, who knocked out the HDC gene in a bunch of mice. HDC is an enzyme that makes histamines, which are involved in many biological functions, but best known for their irritating role in allergic reactions.

Anyways. Turns out that HDC-KO mice performed better in a conditioned fear task, and held onto their training longer compared to mice with their histamines intact. Huh.

But HDC knock outs can also be SMARTER than wild types (or non-screwed up compatriots).

Which, all in all, suggests we don’t really understand why those histamines are doing in the brain. They’ll probably have to knock out some other genes to make things clearer.