Washington DC: In a significant finding, researchers have discovered a potential and novel way that could help prevent asthma before it even starts.
At present, there's no specific treatment to cure asthma although there are medications that can help prevent attacks.
Researchers at the University of Southampton say by targeting a gene called ADAM3, which is associated with the development of asthma, the disease can be prevented.
ADAM33 makes an enzyme, which is attached to cells in the airway muscles. When the enzyme loses its anchor to the cell surface, it is prone to going rogue around the lung causing poorer lung function in people who have asthma.
The studies in human tissue samples and mice, led by Hans Michel Haitchi, suggest that if you switch off ADAM33 or prevent it from going rouge, the features of asthma - airway remodelling (more muscle and blood vessels around the airways), twitchiness and inflammation - will be reduced.
"This finding radically alters our understanding of the field, to say the least," said Haitchi. "For years we have thought that airway remodelling is the result of the inflammation caused by an allergic reaction, but our research tells us otherwise."
Haitchi noted: "Our studies have challenged the common paradigm that airway remodelling in asthma is a consequence of inflammation. Instead, we have shown that rogue human ADAM33 initiates airway remodelling that promotes allergic inflammation and twitchiness of the airways in the presence of allergen."
If successful, the findings that alter the current understanding of the disease could open new chapter in asthma treatment.
It isa said that there are some 300 million people worldwide suffering from asthma, with most of the them using inhalers to help manage the symptoms.
The study has published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) Insight.
(With ANI inputs)
