Treatment may help asthma sufferers
According to research at Washington University in St. Louis, a
two-drug
treatment may some day help with restoring healthy breathing in
people ill with asthma and chronic bronchitis.
Dr Michael Holtzman and other researchers discovered that some
lining cells from the lungs air passages are able to change into
another cell type, which leads to the overproduction of mucus in
the airways. It was observed in mice and patients suffering from
those disorders.
The researchers think that further testing of the treatments
would take not less than a few years, but they claim that the
combination of two drugs
finally is able to preclude the pernicious transformation of
these cells. It would allow the airways to function properly.
Holtzman declared the discoveries are "pushing the rock a little
further up the hill" when it comes to apprehension of airway
diseases.
He explained that at present doctors prescribe treatments that
ease difficulties with breathing, but, unfortunately, those
treatments don't influence on mucus production.
Scientists examined mice with a lung condition similar to asthma
and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a disease
classification which includes chronic bronchitis.
They noticed that the airway lining kept an excess of goblet
cells (mucus-producing cells) because of a cup-like shape. The
number of goblet cells increased as a result of two cellular
mechanisms. One mechanism let the cells live longer because of
the cilia, small hairs that help remove remains out of the
lungs. The other mechanism provoked those cells to change into
goblet cells.
According to Holtzman, in some people an overabundance of goblet
cells is noticed because of viral infections or other factors.
It leads to particular breathing disorders. He said the
scientists proved that the using a combination of two types of
inhibitors can block the excess cells.
One slows down the activity of a epidermal growth factor
receptor - a type of a protein which is too active on the airway
cells with cilia in mice with the asthma-like condition. If the
protein was obstructed, the inhibitor precluded the increase of
those cells.