LONDON – Scientists have discovered a new cause of asthma that offers hope for a treatment that might prevent the life-threatening disease.
Most current treatments for asthma focus on the idea that it is an inflammatory disease. The life-threatening feature of this condition is the attack, or constriction of the airways, making breathing difficult.
The new study in mice indicates, for the first time, that many features of an asthma attack, such as inflammation, mucus secretion, and damage to the airway barrier that prevents infection, result from this constriction.
The results say the damage, inflammation and mucus resulting from an asthma attack can be prevented by blocking the process that normally causes the death of epithelial cells, which cover the internal and external surfaces of the body.
Professor Judy Rosenblatt, from King’s College London, said: “Our discovery is the culmination of more than 10 years of work. As cell biologists who observe the processes, we can see that the physical constriction of an asthma attack causes widespread destruction of the airway barrier. Without this barrier, asthma patients are more susceptible to long-term inflammation, wound healing, and infections that cause more attacks. “By understanding this basic mechanism, we are now in a better position to prevent all of these events.”
Asthma triggers can include pollen or dust and can make symptoms worse, potentially leading to a life-threatening asthma attack.
The causes of asthma are still not understood, and current medications treat the consequences of an asthma attack, but do not prevent it.
Scientists suggest that the solution to stopping asthma symptoms may lie in extrusion of cells, a process they have discovered leads to the death of most epithelial cells.
Scientists at King’s College London used mouse lung models and human airway tissue to discover that when the airways constrict, known as bronchoconstriction, the epithelial cells lining the airway are squeezed out and subsequently die.
Because bronchoconstriction causes too many cells to extrude, it destroys the airway barrier, causing inflammation and excess mucus.
Previous research has found that the chemical compound gadolinium can prevent extrusion. In the recent study, the team found that it can work in mice to prevent excess stenosis that causes damage and inflammation following an asthma attack.
However, the compound has not been tested in humans and has not been considered safe or effective.
Professor Rosenblatt said: “This constriction and destruction of the airways causes post-attack inflammation and excess mucus secretion, which makes it difficult for people with asthma to breathe. Current treatments do not prevent this devastation – an inhaler such as albuterol opens the airways, which is crucial for breathing, but frustratingly we have found that it does not prevent the damage and symptoms following an attack. “Fortunately, we found that we might use an inexpensive compound, gadolinium, which is frequently used in MRI, to stop airway damage in mouse models as well as the resulting inflammation and mucus secretion.”
The scientists suggest that their findings might underlie other inflammatory diseases that are also characterized by constriction, such as intestinal spasm and inflammatory bowel disease.
Source: Independent
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2024-04-08 12:56:11
