New Approach For The Treatment of Asthma

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案将开发和评估 创新和潜在的哮喘临床治疗。虽然有 多种不同的可能诱因，急性哮喘发作总是 以气道壁平滑肌收缩为特征。尽管 这个共同的终点，大多数临床哮喘研究和治疗， 近年来，人们关注的焦点是了解经常出现的免疫因素 导致哮喘发作。本提案介绍了研究和 发展，重点是平滑肌的治疗，因此将是 对哮喘发作有效，不管最初的诱因是什么。它涉及 生物医学装置的设计、构造和应用， 阻止或最小化气道中平滑肌的能力， 收缩。该项目涉及以下各方之间的密切工作伙伴关系： 约翰霍普金斯大学的生理实验室和专业知识， 一家小型加州生物医学工程公司， 产品开发所需的机械和生物工程技能。的 支配该建议的总体假设是， 这一创新系统的平滑肌将最大限度地减少 平滑肌收缩，无论其来源如何。在这份报告中，6 具体目标将针对解决这一假设。两个目标是 有关确定最佳参数和设计标准， 最大的有效性，四个目标与评估安全性有关 和潜在的副作用获得的信息 这些功能性研究将是必不可少的，不仅在正在进行的工程中， 和最佳设备的开发，而且还有助于为 在未来的临床试验中使用该器械。本BRP中建议的研究 因此将允许优化生物医学装置， 有效治疗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.