Bone drug is hailed as asthma cure
SCIENTISTS have identified the root cause of asthma – and say existing bone disease drugs could cure sufferers.
An international team of researchers believes it has made a life- changing breakthrough for 300 million asthma patients worldwide and 5.4 million in the UK.
Scientists have proven for the first time the role of a protein in cell walls which causes sufferers’ airways to narrow and handicap or prevent breathing.
A class of drugs known as calcilytics – first created to treat the bone disease osteoporosis – have been found to reverse all symptoms associated with the debilitating respiratory condition.
Around one- in- twelve asthma sufferers respond poorly to current treatments.
Experts at Cardiff University led the study which has uncovered the previously unproven role of the calcium sensing receptor ( CaSR) in causing asthma.
Environmental triggers such as allergens, cigarette smoke and car fumes were found to release chemicals which activate CaSR in airway cells and cause the inflammation of the small tubes, called bronchi, which carry air in and out of the lungs.
Professor Daniela Riccardi, principal investigator from Cardiff University School of Biosciences, described the findings as “incredibly exciting”.
She added: “If we can prove calcilytics are safe when administered directly to the lung, then in five years we could be in a position to treat patients and potentially stop asthma from happening in the first place.”
Scientists at Cardiff University, working with researchers at King’s College London and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, have published their findings in Science Translational Medicine journal.