A study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications has uncovered the role of a protein associated with asthma, promoting researchers to improve treatment options.
Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have made a breakthrough that may help lead to improved treatment options for patients with asthma. They discovered a key role for a protein called Caspase-11, which was never been implicated in the respiratory condition.
Study authors Prof. Luke O’Neill and Dr. Zbigniew Zaslona and their team have been exploring the role that inflammation plays in asthma, a common and often serious respiratory condition, especially in children.
Caspase-11 is a protein that plays a key role in defending against bacteria. However, the researchers found that when this protein can cause a damaging inflammatory reaction when it is overactive, provoking allergic inflammation in the lungs of people with asthma.
Dr. Zaslona said, “Caspase-11 can cause cells to die, which is a very inflammatory event as the cells then release their contents, which can irritate tissues in our body. We have found that Caspase-11 is a key driver of inflammation in the airways in asthma. This causes the signs and symptoms of asthma which most notably involves difficulty breathing.”
Current treatments help manage mild to moderate symptoms of asthma, but severe cases of asthma are still difficult to treat.
“A variety of irritants such as airborne pollutants, certain types of pollen and house dust mites can induce cell death in the lungs,” Dr. Zaslona added. “Our work suggests that Caspase-11 is sensing these noxious things and causing disease.
Prof. O’Neill said, “Caspase-11, or it’s human equivalent, which is Caspase-4, has never been implicated in asthma before so we think it holds great promise as a possible target for new drugs to treat this common, debilitating disease.” The Wellcome Trust and European Research Council funded the study.
