How influenza drives asthma

Recomendado pela AMICOR Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja

By Megan Scudellari

---

Specialized cells of the innate immune system, identified in the lungs for the first time, play a central role in virus-induced asthma

[Published 29th May 2011 05:00 PM GMT]

---

Viral respiratory infection causes severe asthma attacks in almost all patients with asthma -- a reaction classically attributed to T cells of the adaptive immune system. Now, scientists have identified a pathway in mice by which a subset of innate immune cells, found in mammalian lungs for the first time, orchestrate influenza-induced asthma.

Influenza A virus  Source: CDC

The discovery, published online today in Nature Immunology, suggests the innate immune system, and not just the adaptive immune system, triggers asthma attacks after viral infections. The cells, plus a newly identified pathway by which the cells are activated, could provide novel targets for therapies to control viral-induced asthma attacks, which fail to respond to conventional asthma medications, the authors write. /.../. 

Read more: How influenza drives asthma - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/58184/#ixzz1NneVRWZN

Broccoli May Hold Key to Slowing COPD Progression

By Crystal Phend, Staff Writer, MedPage
TodayPublished: September 17, 2008
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD;
Emeritus Professor University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
BALTIMORE, Sept. 17 --
An antioxidant found in broccoli may reduce oxidative stress that leads to lung damage in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), researchers said.
Sulforaphane restored antioxidant gene expression in a human bronchial epithelial cell line model of COPD, Shyam Biswal, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues reported in the Sept. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
In their series of experiments, lungs of COPD patients showed markedly decreased levels of key anti-inflammatory antioxidants and the protein that stabilizes these nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2)-dependent antioxidants against degradation.
Since both factors were linked to COPD severity, the findings suggest that these compounds could be developed to halt COPD, the researchers said. /.../