Gene Could Turn Off Asthma Discovery Seen To Cure The Condition

http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png

A gene could turn off asthma according to scientists have been identified that could find more effective ways of treating this condition.

ADAM33 gene could turn off asthma

Researchers from the University of Southampton reveals that by silencing a gene called ADAM33, they might be able to prevent an onslaught of symptoms associated with asthma.

One of the primary concerns that plague asthma sufferers is that the condition is triggered by an inflammation of the airways that makes it fairly difficult to breath. Current methods of addressing an asthma attack involve arresting the inflammation, but not eliminating the factors responsible for it.

This recent discover, however, may well be the answer to the problem as the scientists claim that by silencing the ADAM33 gene, it can prevent, better yet eliminate asthma attacks from happening.

The study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, scientists found that the ADAM33 gene creates an enzyme that attaches itself to muscle cells in the airways. Once the enzyme detaches itself from the cell surface, it travels around the lungs, thereby enhancing more muscle tissue and blood vessels that make it more difficult to breath.

Switching off the rogue gene

Study author Hans Michel Haitchi, associate professor of respiratory medicine at Southampton University, points out that turning off this gene stopped asthma in tests conducted with lab mice.

‘In future by blocking ADAM33 or preventing it from going rogue, the features of asthma – airway remodelling (more muscle and blood vessels around the airways), twitchiness and inflammation – will be reduced,’’ says Haitchi.

He also said that their findings change the way medicine may understand asthma, where traditional knowledge claims that asthma is triggered by an allergic reaction, but the findings would serve to dispel that notion, otherwise.

This would also help provide a better understanding and approach to the treatment of asthma attacks.

“We have shown rogue human ADAM33 initiates airway remodelling that promotes allergic inflammation and twitchiness of the airways in the presence of allergen. More importantly, we believe if you block ADAM33 from going rogue or you stop its activity if it does go rogue, asthma could be prevented, “Haitchi added.

An estimated 300 million people all over the world suffer from asthma and has been proven to be deadly in some cases. The common treatment for attacks are usually two inhaler devices, one for relaxing constricted airways and the other a steroid formula that address inflammation in the lungs..

The post Gene Could Turn Off Asthma Discovery Seen To Cure The Condition appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.