CYTOKINE/CHEMOKINE RESPONSE IN ASTHMA EXACERBATIONS DUE TO COLDS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Many patients with asthma have worsening of asthma symptoms when they have an upper respiratory infection (head cold). Rhinovirus (RV), a common cold virus, is frequently linked with asthma exacerbations in children and young adults. This study looks at the why some individuals with asthma have worsening of their asthma when they get a cold and other individuals do not. Is it the type of virus or is the individual's reaction to any virus that causes the worsening of asthma symptoms. Research volunteers with asthma are asked to call the research unit when they develop a cold. Research samples including nasal washings, sputum (mucous coughed up from the lungs), blood, and in some cases, when safety allows, samples of fluid and tissue from the lungs are taken during the time when cold symptoms are present and then again when cold symptoms and asthma symptoms have returned to normal. We have found that there is a trend towards an increased frequency of asthma worsening in subjects who have a cold due to RV when compared to colds caused by viruses other than RV. Studies are ongoing to determine if this trend becomes more pronounced as we study more people. This study also looks at the reason that some individuals will have worsening of asthma symptoms with an RV cold while other individuals do not. We are focusing on a protein called interferon gamma (IFNg). Previous studies have indicated that individuals who make a low level of IFNg when exposed to RV tend to have greater worsening of asthma symptoms. Measurements of IFNg will also be made in this study to see if asthma exacerbations are associated with low levels of IFNg.