With approximately ten percent of the population suffering from asthma – my-wheezing-self included – this news is more than welcoming ahead of chilly winter months and cold night air.
Most of the millions of asthma sufferers in the world are able to regulate their symptoms – coughing, tight chest, lack of breath (and the anxiety it induces) – with inhalers, but a small amount (about 5 per cent of patients) do not respond to any treatment. It's a scary experience, when one minute you're giggling with friends and the next you're gasping for breath and no one can help to calm you down. But scientists at Cardiff University in Wales say they have found the root cause of asthma – and the cure!
According to The Telegraph, the discovery could lead to a new treatment for the condition within the next five years.
Scientists know that asthma is caused by irritating pollens which inflame the small tubes carrying air in and out of the lungs, but they did not know what was triggering it. Using both mice and human airway tissue from asthmatic and non-asthmatic subjects, scientists were able to prove that the calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is the cause of the condition – these receptors go into overdrive in asthmatics, triggering airway twitching, inflammation, and narrowing, bringing on those nasty attacks.
After researches recognised that these cells were the root cause of the problem, they were able to link medication that already exists to deactivate these cells and put a stop to the symptoms. This medication is known as a calcilytics – a calcium receptor antagonist used to treat bone deficiencies like osteoporosis – which could mean you never have to use an inhaler again!
"Our findings are incredibly exciting," says Professor Daniela Riccardi from Cardiff University School Of Biosciences. "If we can prove that calcilytics are safe when administered directly to the lung in people, then in five years we could be in a position to treat patients and potentially stop asthma from happening in the first place.”
This discovery could also pioneer new treatments to help patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic bronchitis, which currently have no cure – and is predicted to be the third biggest killers worldwide by 2020.
It ain't easy being wheezy, but the near future of breathless folk looks puffer-free.
