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Is Immune Response Linked to COPD and Asthma?
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have defined a new type of immune response that is activated in patients with COPD and severe asthma.
The findings, published online May 18 in Nature Medicine, show promise in determining whether a patient's COPD or asthma is the result of a chronic immune response that can be turned on by a respiratory viral infection. The immune response could be detected by monitoring specific types of inflammatory cells or molecules in the lung or potentially in the bloodstream, giving physicians a more precise approach to diagnosis and treatment of lung disease.
Immune response testing could eventually tell physicians whether a patient's condition is mild, moderate or severe, as well as track the effectiveness of treatment. It could also lead to the development of new types of drugs that target the underlying cause of inflammatory lung disease.
In the study, researchers found that a common type of viral infection of the lung can leave behind a persistent trace of the virus. The viral remnant likely becomes an ongoing stimulus for a chronic immune response, which could last for long periods, even a lifetime. The response causes the cells in the lung passages to overproduce mucus and become hyper-reactive to irritants.
