MS therapy could fight asthma, researchers claim

The team was led by asthma expert Professor Donna Davies, and Professor Stephen Holgate, an asthma expert and co-founder of Synairgen Plc, a UK drug discovery firm to which the team’s discovery has been patented and exclusively licensed.

As Holgate explained, 80% of child asthma attacks and 40% of adult asthma attacks are triggered by viral infections, and the worsening of asthma symptoms triggered by the common cold virus frequently leads to hospitalization.

Asthma hospitalizations in general cost the UK National Health Service over GBP850 million every year, and the asthma death toll is increasing in the industrialized world, but relatively few advances have been made in the treatment of asthma compared to other diseases.

Synairgen, which has a proprietary program to develop interferon-B as a therapy for asthma, believes research has been hindered by the lack of good R&D in vitro disease models. In order to overcome this, Synairgen and the University of Southampton are developing a disease-relevant samples Biobank to assist in discovering potential future treatments.

Data from the researchers’ in vitro work showed that viral replication increased around 50 times in asthmatic bronchial epithelial cells (airway lining cells) compared to healthy controls.

The team identified a deficiency in the production of interferon-B (a chemical messenger) which triggers a ‘suicide’ response, called apoptosis, in the infected epithelial cells. This reduces viral replication and thereby reduces the spread of virus within the lungs.

“Treating the cells with interferon-B normalized the asthmatic cells’ response to rhinovirus infection,” explained fellow study leader, Professor Donna Davies. “The results suggest that inhaled interferon-B could be used in the treatment or prevention of rhinovirus-induced asthma attacks, thereby cutting the number of hospitalizations of asthma-sufferers during the cold season.”