New Approach For The Treatment of Asthma

描述(由申请者提供)：本建议书将开发和评估 哮喘的创新和潜在的临床治疗方法。尽管有一种 多种不同的可能诱因，急性哮喘发作总是 以气道壁中的平滑肌肉收缩为特征。尽管 在这个共同的终点，大多数临床哮喘研究和治疗 近年来，人们专注于了解免疫因素，这些因素往往 导致哮喘发作。本提案描述了研究和 专注于治疗平滑肌的开发，因此将是 在哮喘发作时有效，无论最初的触发因素如何。它涉及到 一种生物医学装置的设计、建造和应用 阻止或减少呼吸道中的平滑肌肉的能力 收紧。该项目涉及两国之间密切的工作伙伴关系 约翰霍普金斯大学的生理学实验室和专业知识以及 加州一家小型生物医学工程公司，该公司正在提供 具备产品开发所需的机械和生物工程技能。这个 这一提议的总体假设是，呼吸道的治疗 使用这一创新系统的平滑肌肉将最大限度地减少 无论起源如何，肌肉都会收缩。在这项提案中，有六个 具体目标将指向解决这一假设。两个目标是 与确定最优参数和设计准则有关 最大限度的有效性，四个目标与评估安全性有关 以及这种治疗的潜在副作用。从以下地址获得的信息 这些功能研究将是必不可少的，不仅仅是在正在进行的工程中 以及最佳设备的开发，而且还有助于为 在未来的临床试验中使用这种设备。本BRP中提出的研究 因此将允许优化生物医学设备，该生物医学设备具有潜在的 有效治愈各种形式的人类哮喘。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal will develop and evaluate an innovative and potential clinical treatment for asthma. Although there are a multitude of different possible triggers, an acute asthmatic attack is always characterized by contraction of the smooth muscle in the airway wall. Despite this common end point, most of the clinical asthma research and therapies in recent years have focused on understanding the immunologic factors that often lead to asthmatic attacks. The present proposal describes research and development that focuses on a treatment of smooth muscle that will thus be effective in asthmatic attacks regardless of the initial trigger. It involves the design, construction, and application of a biomedical device that can prevent or minimize the ability of the smooth muscle in the airways to constrict. The project involves a close working partnership between the physiologic laboratories and expertise at the Johns Hopkins University and a small California biomedical engineering company, that is providing the mechanical and bioengineering skills needed for product development. The overall hypothesis governing this proposal is that, the treatment of airway smooth muscle with this innovative system will minimize obstruction caused by smooth muscle contraction, regardless of its origin. In this proposal, six specific aims will be directed toward addressing this hypothesis. Two aims are concerned with determining the optimal parameters and design criteria for maximal effectiveness, and four aims are concerned with assessing the safety and potential side effects of this treatment. The information obtained from these functional studies will be essential, not only in the ongoing engineering and development of the optimal device, but also to help set guidelines for the use of this device in future clinical trials. The studies proposed in this BRP will thus allow optimization of a biomedical device that has the potential to effectively cure all forms of human asthma.