New Genetic Variants = Treatment for Asthma
Reported September 12, 2011
(Ivanhoe Newswire)--- According to the CDC, the number
of people living with asthma in the U.S Grew by 4.3
million from the years 2001 to 2009. That means 1 in 12
individuals are suffering from this disease and the
numbers continue to rise. However, a new study may lead
to help for the many people who are living with asthma.
Although asthma is a common disease amongst many, the
actual causes of asthma remain a mystery. Genome-wide
association studies (GWAS) have recently identified some
genes that have moderate effects on the risk of asthma,
but these genes only explain a small portion of the
disease’s makeup, which suggests that there are many
more genetic variations involved that have not been
identified yet.
An international team of researchers led by Manuel
Ferreira from the Queensland Institute of Medical
Research in Brisbane, Australia have recently conducted
a study to find new genetic variations that are
responsible for increasing the risk of asthma by
combining and interacting with existing asthma GWAS.
The team compared the genomes of thousands of patients
with asthma with a diverse group of non-asthmatics.
Researchers discovered two new genetic variants that
posed strong asthma risks; rs4129267 in the
interleukin-6 receptor (IL6R) and rs7130588 on
chromosome 11q13.5.
Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is a cytokine that plays an
important role in immunity and inflammation; the new
discoveries suggest that drugs that block these
particular types of receptors should be considered for
clinical trials to prevent or reduce airway inflammation
that is associated with asthma. The other variant
rs7130588, on chromosome 11q13.5, was found to be more
common in allergic asthma patients. This suggests that
there is a gene in this chromosome region that plays a
role in the development of allergic sensitization, which
can increase the risk of getting allergic asthma.
“At this stage it is unclear which gene underlies the
association with 11q13.5. Given that no specific gene in
this region has been directly implicated in allergic
disease previously, further characterization of this
region of association is likely to discover novel
molecular mechanisms involved in the causality of
eczema, atopy, and asthma.” The authors were quoted
saying.
As of now, there is no specific gene that can be held
totally responsible for the cause of asthma. The results
from this study confirm that asthma is indeed a complex
disease that consists of many genes of small effects
that combine and interact together to elevate the risks
of developing asthma.
“Our results are consistent with the contributions of
hundreds or potentially thousands of variants with weak
effects on asthma risk, which can be identified through
larger GWAS as already shown with other diseases.” The
authors were quoted saying.
SOURCE: The Lancet |
