A team of scientists from Car
diff University in Great Britain believe they have identified the root cause of asthma. Experiments on mice and human airway tissue found that calcium sensing receptor cells – which detect changes in the environment – go into overdrive in asthmatics, triggering airway twitching, inflammation, and narrowing. Remarkably, drugs already exist which can deactivate these cells. They are known as calcilytics have been used to treat people with osteoporosis.
Professor Daniela Riccardi says, “If we can prove that calcilytics are safe when administered directly to the lung in people, then in five years we could be in a position to treat patients and potentially stop asthma from happening in the first place.”
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