TB drug that can stop a bad asthma attack

AdrUG based on the deadly infection tuberculosis (TB) could be used as a powerful treatment for asthma. The drug mimics the way Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bug that causes TB, partially switches off the immune system when it gets into the body.

The bacterium can block the immune system’s attempts to destroy it. Once inside the lungs, it releases proteins that stop inflammation in the airways caused when the body’s defences attack the invading organism.

Without inflammation, it is much easier for the germ to infect surrounding cells and tissues.

scientists have developed a drug that copies this mechanism in order to reduce the lung inflammation that causes wheezing and breathlessness in asthma.

The injectable drug is made from synthetic versions of compounds found in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

dozens of patients in the UK are being recruited for a trial to test the drug, which would most likely be used to treat severe asthma attacks and symptoms that fail to respond to inhalers.

More than five million people in the UK have asthma, including more than one million children.

Many sufferers can control their asthma with a combination of daily inhaled steroids (which also reduce inflammation) and a bronchodilator inhaler that relieves wheezing by widening the airways.

While daily steroids are effective at preventing asthma attacks, many people forget to take them when they feel well — which increases the risk of wheeziness. and bronchodilators — such as Ventolin — can be ineffective against severe attacks.

scientists first noticed that asthma patients who developed TB experienced a sharp drop in severe wheezing and breathlessness nearly 20 years ago.

an international study published in the journal Thorax in 2000 found that for every 25 per cent increase in the numbers affected by TB there was a 5 per cent drop in severe asthma cases.

a team of scientists at King’s College London and st George’s Hospital, London, spent several years creating artificial versions of these proteins to use in an asthma drug.

They are now leading a trial of 84 patients with severe asthma to test how effective the drug is at relieving symptoms over a threeweek period.

some will receive a single jab of the drug, while others will have repeat doses to see how much is needed to control asthma. The results are due over the next two years, and the jab could be ready for routine use within five years.

Professor adnan Custovic, an expert in asthma and allergies at imperial College London, says the experimental drug ‘has merit’ as exposing the lungs to synthetic TB proteins could tone down inflammation triggered in an asthma attack. But ‘whether it will be successful remains to be seen,’ he adds.

■ MeanWHiLe while rain is thought to help people with allergies such as asthma — by dampening pollen so it falls to the ground — thunderstorms could trigger attacks, according to a study in the Journal of applied Meteorology and Climatology.

it seems strong winds spread the particles ahead of the storm before it hits, while the electrical activity during a thunderstorm fragments the pollen particles that have already been ruptured by the rainfall and high humidity.