Viral respiratory infection causes severe asthma attacks in almost all patients with asthma -- a reaction classically attributed to T cells of the adaptive immune system. Now, scientists have identified a pathway in mice by which a subset of innate immune cells, found in mammalian lungs for the first time, orchestrate influenza-induced asthma.
The discovery, published online today in linkurl:Nature Immunology,;http://www.nature.com/ni/index.html suggests the innate immune system, and not just the adaptive immune system, triggers asthma attacks after viral infections. The cells, plus a newly identified pathway by which the cells are activated, could provide novel targets for therapies to control viral-induced asthma attacks, which fail to respond to conventional asthma medications, the authors write.The research is "fresh and engaging," said linkurl:Gary Anderson,;http://www.pharmacology.unimelb.edu.au/research/LungDisease.html who studies lung disease at the University of Melbourne in Australia and wasn't involved in the research, in an email. But,...
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Source: linkurl:CDC;http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/images.htm?s_cid=cs_001 |
Y. Chang, et al., "Innate lymphoid cells mediate influenza-induced airway hyper-reactivity independently of adaptive immunity," Nat Immun, doi: 10.1038/ni.2045, 2011.
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