Researchers from the UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that an immune-system protein already used for treating health complications such as multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C and a variety of cancers could be of use to provide relief to patients afflicted with asthma.

The findings suggest that interferon could be a readily available and valuable therapy for treating asthmatic patients.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“This finding is incredibly important, because humans are being treated with interferon for a variety of diseases, yet no one has tried treating asthma patients with interferon,” said Dr. J. David Farrar, assistant professor of immunology and molecular biology at UT Southwestern and senior author of the study. “The current therapies for asthma are inhalers and steroids, both of which offer only temporary relief.”

Asthma results in approximately 200,000 pediatric hospitalizations each year, more than for any other childhood disease. About 20 million people have been diagnosed with asthma in the U.S.

In the current study, the researchers showed in isolated human cells that interferon blocks the development of nascent Th2 cells and inhibits cells that already have become Th2 cells by interfering with a regulatory protein called GATA3, a transcription factor Th2 cells express to regulate their function.

The findings are available online and appeared in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Immunology. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Exxon Mobil Corp.

Tags:  asthma, GATA3, hepatitis C, interferon, multiple sclerosis, Steroids

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