Potential asthma breakthrough
Researchers predict that over half of Europe's population may suffer from some form of allergy in the next six years. The pace with which allergies and asthma are spreading in developed countries is a concern that sufferers and scientists alike are all too keen to bring to an end. A recent discovery published in Nature Genetics may very well help to do just that. A result of the largest study undertaken on asthma genetics to date, a team of scientists have found several sequence variants associated with asthma that will contribute to a better understanding of this chronic disease. Fighting for Breath, a publication produced by the European Federation for Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations, provides a patient's perspective on severe asthma and details alarming statistics on the disease. Currently, over 32 million people have asthma in Europe. Of these, over 6 million live with severe symptoms of the disease. In western Europe, statistics indicate that at least one person dies of asthma every hour; the UK has one of the highest rates for both emergency and mortality rates. Participants of the report most commonly describe asthma by using the words 'breathlessness', ' suffocation' and ' fear'. One in five said that they feel disadvantaged at work or during study, and almost 70 % said the disease restricts their physical activities. In expressing their desire for future change, one in every three report respondents said they want to see more money being invested in research for new treatments. In addition to the social toll the disease takes, the total cost of asthma in Europe, as reported in 2003, was almost EUR 18 billion per year, with productivity loss estimated at almost EUR 10 billion per year. So, what is behind asthma and allergic diseases? Often, they are associated with a number of biological reactions. One of these is an increase in the blood count of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell whose natural role it is to combat parasites in the human body. Eosinophils accumulate when an allergic reaction has taken place. It was this immune reaction that an international team of scientists used as a marker to further understand the disease's mechanisms. Iceland's deCODE genetics, Germany's Helmholtz Zentrum München, and several research institutes around the world were involved in the study. Together, the institutes performed a genome-wide association scan of more than 50,000 asthmatics and healthy control subjects in Iceland, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and South Korea. As a result, the researchers found several sequence variants associated with asthma. 'Two of the detected sequence variants are of significance for a biochemical pathway in the interleukin-1 (IL-1) cluster,' explained one of the study's initiators, Dr Matthias Wjst, from Helmholtz Zentrum München's Institute of Inhalation Biology. According to the research team, the finding supports the 2004 results of another research group at Helmholtz Zentrum München, which showed that the IL-1 gene cluster is associated with asthma. Dr Wjst pointed out that, unfortunately, there is no information as yet on what mechanisms underlie the effect of these sequence variants on the inflammatory cells. Nevertheless, he said 'these findings give us new starting points for a better understanding of the various hypotheses of allergic inflammation.' Senior author of the study and CEO of deCODE, Dr Kari Stefansson said that the approach used in the study enabled the researchers to look at complex questions from several vantage points, including examining the connection between inflammation and cardiovascular disease. 'These discoveries may be used in drug discovery and to build out our tools for DNA-based risk assessment of these diseases.' The paper, 'Sequence variants affecting eosinophil numbers associated with asthma and myocardial infarction', was published in Nature Genetics on 8 February 2009.