On the trail of asthma risk genes

Asthma: On the trail of risk genes. Environmental factors play a major role in the development of ashma.

(25.09.2010) In an extensive asthma study, an international team of researchers studied the genes of about 26,000 people, with the result that environmental factors probably play a greater role in the development of asthma than different variants in the genome. Also, the study casts doubt on the thesis that the genesis of bronchial asthma is favored by allergic reactions.

In their study, the researchers examined 10,000 children and adults with asthma and 16,000 healthy people. They were able to identify six genetic risk variants that play a role in the development of asthma. But their influence is not as strong as previously thought. Because only about 38 percent of childhood asthma can be explained with one of these genetic variants, emphasizes Erika von Mutius from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, which is also involved in the studies. That's what the im now „New England Journal of Medicine“ published study again focused on the importance of environmental factors in the emergence of asthma.

In addition, the researchers have found that asthma and allergies, unlike previously thought likely subject to different mechanisms of development. Genetic variants that influence the production of IgE antibodies were expected. However, the current results point in a different direction. The six discovered gene variants (SNP) are predominantly involved in the inflammatory reaction and, for example, significantly influence the formation or action of interleukins. This suggests that allergies are not the cause but the result of asthma, according to the researchers. Miriam Moffatt of Imperial College London, one of the lead authors of the study, also suspects that the inflammatory reaction to asthma lays the foundation for later allergic hypersensitivity. In addition, the researchers speculate that pediatric asthma and the form of adult asthma could be two fundamentally different diseases, as both were associated with different gene variants in the study.

Around one hundred million people around the world suffer from bronchial asthma, with the number of patients having risen sharply over the past two decades. In Germany, according to the Helmholtz Center, about five to ten percent of the population suffer from asthma. Although not all asthma can be explained by the risk gene variants, the current research results provide a good starting point for the development of new drugs and therapies. In the future, research should focus more on genetics. (Fp)

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