According to Medical News Today, a breakthrough study has uncovered a potential cause of asthma.
The study, conducted at Cardiff University in the U.K., revealed that the calcium-sensing receptor CaSR plays a key role in how asthma affects the body.
The researchers used human airway tissue from asthmatic and non-asthmatic people and lab mice to asthma to conclude that:
- Manipulating CaSR with already existing drugs known as calcilytics reversed all the symptoms of asthma.
- Calcilytics block the calcium-sensing receptor when they are directly nebulized into the lungs.
This direct action toward deactivating the CaSR kept the airway from narrowing, becoming inflamed and twitching, the symptoms that cause difficulty to breathe in asthma sufferers.
Asthma affects about 25 million people in the U.S. About 5 percent of these sufferers don't respond to current available treatments. An estimated 300 million people worldwide suffer from asthma, according to The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology.
Calcilytics were first developed 15 years ago for the treatment of osteoporosis, but have yielded few positive results in that field since then. These new developments could be the breakthrough many have waited for their whole lives.
Researchers hope to test the drug on human patients within the next two years. Within five, if calcilytics are safe to administer directly into human lungs, asthma could potentially cease to exist.
Other studies have also been recently conducted involving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (COPD), mucus and asthma.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, nine Americans die from asthma and its complications daily. Many of these victims don't have access to appropriate healthcare or don't respond to current treatments.
Estimates indicate that more than 100 million people will be affected by asthma by 2025.
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