Discovery offers hope for asthma-sufferers

A SCIENTIFIC breakthrough could benefit hundreds of thousands of Irish asthmatics who experience serious attacks when suffering from a cold.

Experts hope their discovery will pave the way for new treatments to prevent attacks during the winter — often the most dangerous attacks.

Around half of all asthmatics are believed to suffer an acute attack, when a normal reliever inhaler or steroid preventative does not have the same affect as usual, when they have a respiratory virus, usually a cold.

The Asthma Society estimates up to 470,000 people may have the condition here.

New research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, has discovered asthmatics produce half the number of anti-viral proteins when fighting a cold as those who do not suffer from the condition.

When infected with the common cold, caused by rhinoviruses, the lung cells of asthmatics produce far fewer of the proteins, which are generated by the immune system.

The researchers believe a new generation of treatments could be created to deliver anti-viral medicine directly to the lungs to help the body fight such viruses.

Prof Sebastian Johnston, of Imperial College London, said he was excited by the findings. He believes inhalers could be developed to deliver the proteins to the lungs during the first few days of a cold or preventatively throughout winter.