In recent days, most of the asthma research is fully focused on the inflammatory response that occurs as a reaction to an allergen. The reason is 90 percent of the asthmatics that are newly diagnosed can have the reaction to specific allergen.
Few asthma researches:
The University of Sydney in Australia is currently performing asthma research and is trying to stop the destructive cells responsible for the inflammatory response from being produced. These cells are stimulated by chemical messengers called cytokines and current medications, for example steroids which help to reduce the concentration of cytokines and stop the inflammatory response.
Steroids also have an effect on a number of other tissues in the body and are known to produce side effects. Asthma research at the university is undergoing on how the cytokines are produced and how they can stop production and also inflammatory response.
Woolcock Institute of Medical Research is conducting an asthma research on the long-term effects of asthmatic episodes on the lining of the airways and how the inflammatory response can affect and how current medications work.
They are trying to develop a non-invasive method that will allow them to determine the degree of scarring and how this affects the effectiveness of different asthmatic medications.
Erlangen University in Germany is conducting a research and the researchers are working on developing new corticosteroids that are used against asthma. They don’t particularly work on the cells of the airways, thus have an effect on the number of other parts of the body. This drug can cause many side effects, so the asthma research on this is trying to find an alternative class of drug. This drug also gives the same effects as corticosteroids but it doesn’t cause any side effects.
One research lab in India is focusing its attention on intrinsic asthma. Here, asthma research is progressing towards the development of personalized drugs precise to your hereditary make-up. The research has identified a number of possible genes that may be responsible for asthma.
National Jewish research facility in America is conducting a study to find out how strongly patients stick to their prescribed drug treatment. In this asthma research it was found that 50% of the cases which remain uncontrolled are due to the fault of the patient not the medicine. Doctors and researchers by asking volunteers to use inhalers determine how regularly patients take their medicines and how strictly they follow the prescriptions. This help to control asthma in most of the uncontrolled cases.
These are the just few examples of asthma research programs presently undergoing throughout the world. Most of the researchers are focusing on developing alternative medicines that influence the immune system and thus resulting in inflammatory response. Till now the details of asthma pathophysiology are unclear and hence a cure cannot be found until it is precisely understood.
