Mechanisms of Deficient Innate Immune Responses in Asthma

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Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in the UK. The majority of healthcare costs are related to acute attacks. Acute attacks are also dreaded by asthma sufferers, as they lead to severe breathlessness, hospitalisation or death. Current therapies are not good at either treatment or prevention of acute attacks. New approaches to therapy are therefore urgently needed. Asthma attacks are caused by common cold viruses, which ?go to the chest?, some are also made worse by chronic bacterial colonisation which can be ?reactivated? during acute attacks. We have discovered asthmatics have weak immune responses to viral and bacterial infections, accounting for their increased susceptibility to these infections. We plan to carry out detailed studies of anti-viral and anti-bacterial immunity in lung cells from adults with asthma, to identify the molecules deficient in switching on immune responses in the lung during these attacks. We will also study different forms of asthma to see how widespread these deficiencies are, and will study children through from birth to 6 years of age, to see when these deficiencies develop. Finally we will see if the deficiencies are detected in blood tests so they can be more easily identified.By identifying the molecules that are deficient during these attacks, we should be able to identify targets for the development of new therapies for both prevention and treatment of acute attack of asthma. So doing would greatly reduce distress suffered by asthma patients, as well as reducing mortality and health care costs.