The role of FIZZ-2/RELM-beta in airways remodelling in asthma: from mouse to man

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Of the 6 million adults and children in the UK today suffering from asthma, many are well controlled with medicines such as inhaled steroids (preventers), which reduce the inflammation in the airways which causes asthma, bronchodilators such as salbutamol (ventolin) (relievers) and leukotriene blocking drugs such as montelukast (Singulair). Many thousands, however, are not and have severe symptoms almost constantly, making their lives a misery. These patients may eventually develop blockage of the airways, which seems not to respond very well to current anti-asthma medicines. This blockage is thought to be caused, at least partly, by irreversible scarring of the airways caused by the inflammation, and other changes which cannot be reversed by current anti-asthma medicines. Very little is known about what causes these changes, but recent evidence implicates a new family of proteins released in the inflamed airways of asthmatics with the unusual name of FIZZ. In this study we plan to investigate the role of one of these proteins, FIZZ-2, in bringing about irreversible blockage in the airways of asthmatics. If FIZZ is found to be important, this will provide the impetus to develop new drugs for asthma which block the action of FIZZ, and therefore irreversible blockage of the airways: a totally new approach to asthma treatment for the benefit of chronic sufferers.