At the moment, the treatments for asthma attacks are similar whether the attacks are caused by a virus or other allergens, but the researchers said that current therapies aren’t actually that effective when treating asthma symptoms that are caused by viruses. This is why the team spent years studying asthma attacks, and found that two proteins play an important role in triggering these attacks whenever they come in contact with viruses or dust particles.
The results of the research, which were published in the journal Nature Medicine, demonstrated the role of two proteins called midline-1 and protein phosphatase 2A. When dust particles come into contact with your lungs, the study found that the levels of midline-1 protein go up while the level of phosphatase 2A is brought down. This second protein has been linked to controlling the action of other proteins in your body that are associated with mucous production and inflammation, so therefore when it is reduced; you can develop symptoms of asthma.
According to the researchers, by targeting these molecular pathways, scientists will be able to develop better treatments for asthma than targeting other symptoms. In a press release, one of the study authors, Dr Adam Collison, said, ‘The proteins are generated in the innermost layer of the airways, where the body has first contact with allergens and viruses, and once activated they appear to modulate many other disease factors. Obviously it is better to target these earlier signals rather than the hundreds of downstream effects.’
Lead author of the study, Joerg Mattes, added that the team has already begun to test therapeutic agents that target this pathway: ‘We have seen that this pathway operates in the cells of asthmatics, and our pre-clinical disease models showed that we can inhibit the pathway and protect against the development of both virus- and allergen-induced asthma.’