Showing posts with label Asthma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asthma. Show all posts
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Renowned researcher Dr. Fernando Martinez to lead UA’s BIO5 Institute
One of the most highly regarded researchers worldwide in childhood lung diseases, Fernando Martinez, has accepted the position of interim director for the BIO5 Institute at The University of Arizona (UA) beginning February 9, 2009. Dr. Martinez is the Swift-McNear Professor of Pediatrics, the director of the UA College of Medicine's Arizona Respiratory Center, and a long time BIO5 faculty member. (Read More)
Monday, December 15, 2008
NHLBI Opens Resource for Genetic and Clinical Asthma Data
[Source: GenomeWeb News, a GenomeWeb staff reporter] — The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has expanded its genetic and clinical data collection to include information collected from three asthma research networks, the National Institutes of Health said today.
The new project is part of the NHLBI’s SNP Health Association Resource (SHARe), a web-based dataset that provides researchers with free access to data from multiple, large population-based studies such as the Framingham Heart Study.
The new asthma component, called the SHARe-Asthma Resource Project (SHARP), includes data on 2,332 people with asthma and 805 families whose DNA was tested for 1 million genetic variations. SHARP also includes clinical data about lung function, allergy status, and respiratory symptoms.
The clinical data used in SHARP is being provided by the Childhood Asthma Management Program, the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network, and the Asthma Clinical Research Network, all of which are funded by NHLBI.
The project will enable scientists to link participants’ genetic variations to their lab test results, making it possible to find out more about genetic influence on asthma and other airway diseases.
“Expanding the SHARe program to include asthma through the SHARP initiative will greatly expand our understanding of lung disease biology using genetic and genomic technologies,” NHLBI Director Elizabeth Nabel said in a statement.
SHARP data is available through the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes, or dbGaP, hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Affymetrix developed SNP genotyping data for the asthma program under a contract with NHLBI.
More information about the new asthma program is available at the NIH’s website.
The new project is part of the NHLBI’s SNP Health Association Resource (SHARe), a web-based dataset that provides researchers with free access to data from multiple, large population-based studies such as the Framingham Heart Study.
The new asthma component, called the SHARe-Asthma Resource Project (SHARP), includes data on 2,332 people with asthma and 805 families whose DNA was tested for 1 million genetic variations. SHARP also includes clinical data about lung function, allergy status, and respiratory symptoms.
The clinical data used in SHARP is being provided by the Childhood Asthma Management Program, the Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network, and the Asthma Clinical Research Network, all of which are funded by NHLBI.
The project will enable scientists to link participants’ genetic variations to their lab test results, making it possible to find out more about genetic influence on asthma and other airway diseases.
“Expanding the SHARe program to include asthma through the SHARP initiative will greatly expand our understanding of lung disease biology using genetic and genomic technologies,” NHLBI Director Elizabeth Nabel said in a statement.
SHARP data is available through the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes, or dbGaP, hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Affymetrix developed SNP genotyping data for the asthma program under a contract with NHLBI.
More information about the new asthma program is available at the NIH’s website.
Monday, November 3, 2008
UA's dust research has public health, safety applications
[Source: HEIDI ROWLEY, Tucson Citizen] - University of Arizona research could make it possible to warn people with asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions days before dust and pollen become health risks.
UA professor William Sprigg and his fellow researchers are using NASA satellites and National Weather Service technology to create dust models, or images, that can more accurately predict when and where a dust storm will occur. Most of the research has focused on the Southwest, including California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Health agencies are interested in the new technology because dust and the pathogens it carries have been blamed for aggravating some heart and lung conditions, including asthma and allergies.
"Today we can forecast pretty well three days in advance when there will be a significant amount of dust in the air and we can tell where that dust will go," Sprigg said.
He envisions four different applications for what they have learned about how dust travels:
• Public health alerts for those who are sensitive to dust.
• Transportation alerts that will help drivers know where and when visibility will be reduced.
• Tracking when pollen-makers will bloom and to which parts of town the pollen will travel.
• Giving ZIP code-specific forecasts of air quality changes.
Sprigg said the research started with a question.
"If we knew a little bit more about the surface, where the shrubs are, the bodies of water, could we perhaps predict when there is going to be a dust storm generated?" he said. "Dust modeling always has relied on surface characteristics that we knew were wrong."
To make predictions scientists had generally relied on old maps and topographical surveys that did not take into account seasonal variations.
The idea led to a collaboration between UA, the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NASA, the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona and New Mexico health departments.
Funding from NASA for the NASA Public Health Applications in Remote Sensing project will soon run out, but Sprigg is confident that more funding will soon be available because the project has so many potential applications for use in public health and safety.
The Arizona Department of Health estimates that about 600,000 Arizonans have asthma - 79,0000 of them children.
Beth Gorman, program manager for the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, said the models may be used to warn people much more quickly when air quality levels may become dangerous. She said air quality warnings are currently based on real-time monitors and not on what the air is expected to be like.
"It would be great if it could get the word out ahead of time," said Gorman, who has been working with Sprigg on how the university and department could work together.
She said because the warnings are slowly disseminated through media outlets, sometimes those people who could be adversely affected by bad air quality don't get the news until it's too late.
For example, Sprigg said, "School nurses will be able to say, 'All classes scheduled for Wednesday morning, we don't want them outside,' or parents can be alerted that their asthmatic child will be at a higher risk on Wednesday as opposed to Thursday."
The health department's state epidemiologist, Ken Komatsu, is hoping the technology will also be able to help the state track valley fever, an air-born fungus that is spread by dust and wind.
"We want to look at correlation between his dust models and where we see valley fever," Komatsu said.
The dust models created by Sprigg and his team don't only track dirt, but any particulate in the air, including pollen.
"If these trees are changing the time at which they pollinate, it changes the distribution . . . it changes the farmers' almanac forecast,'' Sprigg said.
"We can identify which species are going to pollinate, and monitor that particular pollen and separate that out from other types of pollen. We would be giving a much more specific kind of prediction whether we in Tucson might be more affected by a pollen release than people in Phoenix."
He said particulates can be tracked using the NASA system down to less than a mile, which would give public health agencies and the National Weather Service the ability to forecast or predict which neighborhoods are going to be most adversely hit by an increase in dust or pollen levels.
"I anticipate giving a forecast at your Zip code,'' Sprigg said.
In New Mexico, the dust models are already being used in a study where physicians are asked to track when there are a high number of respiratory-related complaints and researchers look at whether those incidents correlate with dust storms.
Komatsu said the study couldn't be done in Arizona because there isn't an information network that involves all state physicians, as there is in New Mexico. However, he said he is watching the New Mexico study closely to see if it is something that can eventually be replicated in Arizona.
Sprigg said the university has yet to create a partnership with the Arizona Department of Transportation, but he hopes to in the near future because of the affect the dust models can have on transportation.
According to ADOT, in 2006 nine people were killed and 134 injured in Arizona in crashes that were attributed to blowing sand, dirt or snow. Sprigg said he hopes that the technology will help to reduce those crashes by helping the transportation department know when to tell travelers that visibility on the roadways is going to be affected.
"We can forecast when a particular part of the highway is at particular risk for a blinding dust storm," he said.
UA professor William Sprigg and his fellow researchers are using NASA satellites and National Weather Service technology to create dust models, or images, that can more accurately predict when and where a dust storm will occur. Most of the research has focused on the Southwest, including California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Health agencies are interested in the new technology because dust and the pathogens it carries have been blamed for aggravating some heart and lung conditions, including asthma and allergies.
"Today we can forecast pretty well three days in advance when there will be a significant amount of dust in the air and we can tell where that dust will go," Sprigg said.
He envisions four different applications for what they have learned about how dust travels:
• Public health alerts for those who are sensitive to dust.
• Transportation alerts that will help drivers know where and when visibility will be reduced.
• Tracking when pollen-makers will bloom and to which parts of town the pollen will travel.
• Giving ZIP code-specific forecasts of air quality changes.
Sprigg said the research started with a question.
"If we knew a little bit more about the surface, where the shrubs are, the bodies of water, could we perhaps predict when there is going to be a dust storm generated?" he said. "Dust modeling always has relied on surface characteristics that we knew were wrong."
To make predictions scientists had generally relied on old maps and topographical surveys that did not take into account seasonal variations.
The idea led to a collaboration between UA, the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NASA, the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona and New Mexico health departments.
Funding from NASA for the NASA Public Health Applications in Remote Sensing project will soon run out, but Sprigg is confident that more funding will soon be available because the project has so many potential applications for use in public health and safety.
The Arizona Department of Health estimates that about 600,000 Arizonans have asthma - 79,0000 of them children.
Beth Gorman, program manager for the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, said the models may be used to warn people much more quickly when air quality levels may become dangerous. She said air quality warnings are currently based on real-time monitors and not on what the air is expected to be like.
"It would be great if it could get the word out ahead of time," said Gorman, who has been working with Sprigg on how the university and department could work together.
She said because the warnings are slowly disseminated through media outlets, sometimes those people who could be adversely affected by bad air quality don't get the news until it's too late.
For example, Sprigg said, "School nurses will be able to say, 'All classes scheduled for Wednesday morning, we don't want them outside,' or parents can be alerted that their asthmatic child will be at a higher risk on Wednesday as opposed to Thursday."
The health department's state epidemiologist, Ken Komatsu, is hoping the technology will also be able to help the state track valley fever, an air-born fungus that is spread by dust and wind.
"We want to look at correlation between his dust models and where we see valley fever," Komatsu said.
The dust models created by Sprigg and his team don't only track dirt, but any particulate in the air, including pollen.
"If these trees are changing the time at which they pollinate, it changes the distribution . . . it changes the farmers' almanac forecast,'' Sprigg said.
"We can identify which species are going to pollinate, and monitor that particular pollen and separate that out from other types of pollen. We would be giving a much more specific kind of prediction whether we in Tucson might be more affected by a pollen release than people in Phoenix."
He said particulates can be tracked using the NASA system down to less than a mile, which would give public health agencies and the National Weather Service the ability to forecast or predict which neighborhoods are going to be most adversely hit by an increase in dust or pollen levels.
"I anticipate giving a forecast at your Zip code,'' Sprigg said.
In New Mexico, the dust models are already being used in a study where physicians are asked to track when there are a high number of respiratory-related complaints and researchers look at whether those incidents correlate with dust storms.
Komatsu said the study couldn't be done in Arizona because there isn't an information network that involves all state physicians, as there is in New Mexico. However, he said he is watching the New Mexico study closely to see if it is something that can eventually be replicated in Arizona.
Sprigg said the university has yet to create a partnership with the Arizona Department of Transportation, but he hopes to in the near future because of the affect the dust models can have on transportation.
According to ADOT, in 2006 nine people were killed and 134 injured in Arizona in crashes that were attributed to blowing sand, dirt or snow. Sprigg said he hopes that the technology will help to reduce those crashes by helping the transportation department know when to tell travelers that visibility on the roadways is going to be affected.
"We can forecast when a particular part of the highway is at particular risk for a blinding dust storm," he said.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Acetaminophen Linked to Childhood Asthma
[Source: Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter] - Children given acetaminophen during the first year of life to reduce fever are more likely to develop asthma later on, a new study finds.
These children are also more likely to develop rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema when they reach age 6 to 7, according to the report in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet.
"If this association is causative, it would suggest that acetaminophen use is a risk factor for asthma and may explain the asthma has become more common," said lead researcher Dr. Richard Beasley, from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand in Wellington.
Since this study can't definitively say that acetaminophen is a cause of asthma, its use for children shouldn't be changed, Beasley added. "Acetaminophen is the preferred drug for relief of pain and fever in childhood," he said.
Beasley thinks, however, acetaminophen should not be used routinely for childhood fever, but reserved for high fevers. "Acetaminophen is still the preferred agent, but the large amounts of acetaminophen used around the world are unnecessary," he said. "Its use should be limited to treat high fevers."
For the study, Beasley's group collected data on 205,487 children from 31 countries around the world. These children participated in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood.
The researchers found that children who were given acetaminophen for fever during the first year of life had a 46 percent increased risk of developing asthma when they were 6 to 7 years old.
In addition, children who were given high doses of acetaminophen within the past year had a more than three times increased risk of asthma. Those who were given medium doses had a 61 percent increased risk of developing the condition, Beasley's team reported.
Acetaminophen use was also associated with an increased risk of severe asthma of about 22 percent to 38 percent, the researchers found.
Moreover, acetaminophen increased the risk of eczema by 18 percent and rhinoconjunctivitis by 32 percent. Among children given high doses of acetaminophen, the risk for eczema almost doubled, and the risk for rhinoconjunctivitis increased by almost threefold, Beasley's group found.
Dr. Norman H. Edelman, vice president for health sciences and professor of medicine at SUNY Stony Brook University in New York, and spokesman for the American Lung Association, said the study adds more evidence to acetaminophen's link to asthma.
"The study is consistent with quite a few others which show that use of acetaminophen associated with an increased in the risk for asthma," Edelman said.
Dr. Geoffrey Chupp, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Yale Asthma Clinic at Yale University School of Medicine, thinks the association between acetaminophen and asthma may be a sign of something else.
"Children who are taking acetaminophen may be getting sick more often and getting more respiratory viruses, and they are getting asthma for other reasons," Chupp said. "It's not actually due to the acetaminophen, but acetaminophen happens to be in the picture, because they get sick all the time."
Another study in the same journal concluded that allergic or not, allergic rhinitis is a predictor of asthma in adulthood.
In the study, researchers collected data on 6,461 patients without asthma. After 8.8 years of follow-up, the researchers found that 3.1 percent of the patients with non-allergenic rhinitis developed asthma, as did 4 percent of the individuals with allergic rhinitis. This compared with only 1.1 percent of the patients without rhinitis who developed asthma.
"This large prospective study provides strong evidence for an increased risk of asthma in adults with allergic rhinitis, and to a lesser extent non-allergic rhinitis... Several clinical trials in asthmatic patients with allergic rhinitis were associated with a reduction in asthma symptoms. However, only interventional studies could be used to conclude that the treatment of allergic rhinitis is effective in reducing the incidence of asthma," the authors concluded.
A third study in the journal found adult asthma has its origins in early childhood.
For the study, researchers from the Arizona Respiratory Center collected data on 849 infants. After 22 years of follow-up, 181 people had asthma. The researchers found that children who had wheezing at age 6 or 7 were four times more likely to develop asthma as adults.
For children whose wheezing persisted, their risk of developing asthma increased 14 times. Other factors in childhood which increased the risk of asthma included low airway function (4.5 times increased risk for asthma) and bronchial responsiveness (7 times increased risk for asthma).
"In over 70 percent of people with current asthma and 63 percent of those with newly diagnosed asthma at age 22 years, episodes of wheezing had happened in the first three years of life or were reported by parents at age 6 years... Our findings support our previous proposition that most forms of asthma have their origins in early life, but we now extend that proposition to asthma diagnosed in early adult life," the authors concluded.
These children are also more likely to develop rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema when they reach age 6 to 7, according to the report in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet.
"If this association is causative, it would suggest that acetaminophen use is a risk factor for asthma and may explain the asthma has become more common," said lead researcher Dr. Richard Beasley, from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand in Wellington.
Since this study can't definitively say that acetaminophen is a cause of asthma, its use for children shouldn't be changed, Beasley added. "Acetaminophen is the preferred drug for relief of pain and fever in childhood," he said.
Beasley thinks, however, acetaminophen should not be used routinely for childhood fever, but reserved for high fevers. "Acetaminophen is still the preferred agent, but the large amounts of acetaminophen used around the world are unnecessary," he said. "Its use should be limited to treat high fevers."
For the study, Beasley's group collected data on 205,487 children from 31 countries around the world. These children participated in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood.
The researchers found that children who were given acetaminophen for fever during the first year of life had a 46 percent increased risk of developing asthma when they were 6 to 7 years old.
In addition, children who were given high doses of acetaminophen within the past year had a more than three times increased risk of asthma. Those who were given medium doses had a 61 percent increased risk of developing the condition, Beasley's team reported.
Acetaminophen use was also associated with an increased risk of severe asthma of about 22 percent to 38 percent, the researchers found.
Moreover, acetaminophen increased the risk of eczema by 18 percent and rhinoconjunctivitis by 32 percent. Among children given high doses of acetaminophen, the risk for eczema almost doubled, and the risk for rhinoconjunctivitis increased by almost threefold, Beasley's group found.
Dr. Norman H. Edelman, vice president for health sciences and professor of medicine at SUNY Stony Brook University in New York, and spokesman for the American Lung Association, said the study adds more evidence to acetaminophen's link to asthma.
"The study is consistent with quite a few others which show that use of acetaminophen associated with an increased in the risk for asthma," Edelman said.
Dr. Geoffrey Chupp, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Yale Asthma Clinic at Yale University School of Medicine, thinks the association between acetaminophen and asthma may be a sign of something else.
"Children who are taking acetaminophen may be getting sick more often and getting more respiratory viruses, and they are getting asthma for other reasons," Chupp said. "It's not actually due to the acetaminophen, but acetaminophen happens to be in the picture, because they get sick all the time."
Another study in the same journal concluded that allergic or not, allergic rhinitis is a predictor of asthma in adulthood.
In the study, researchers collected data on 6,461 patients without asthma. After 8.8 years of follow-up, the researchers found that 3.1 percent of the patients with non-allergenic rhinitis developed asthma, as did 4 percent of the individuals with allergic rhinitis. This compared with only 1.1 percent of the patients without rhinitis who developed asthma.
"This large prospective study provides strong evidence for an increased risk of asthma in adults with allergic rhinitis, and to a lesser extent non-allergic rhinitis... Several clinical trials in asthmatic patients with allergic rhinitis were associated with a reduction in asthma symptoms. However, only interventional studies could be used to conclude that the treatment of allergic rhinitis is effective in reducing the incidence of asthma," the authors concluded.
A third study in the journal found adult asthma has its origins in early childhood.
For the study, researchers from the Arizona Respiratory Center collected data on 849 infants. After 22 years of follow-up, 181 people had asthma. The researchers found that children who had wheezing at age 6 or 7 were four times more likely to develop asthma as adults.
For children whose wheezing persisted, their risk of developing asthma increased 14 times. Other factors in childhood which increased the risk of asthma included low airway function (4.5 times increased risk for asthma) and bronchial responsiveness (7 times increased risk for asthma).
"In over 70 percent of people with current asthma and 63 percent of those with newly diagnosed asthma at age 22 years, episodes of wheezing had happened in the first three years of life or were reported by parents at age 6 years... Our findings support our previous proposition that most forms of asthma have their origins in early life, but we now extend that proposition to asthma diagnosed in early adult life," the authors concluded.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Mayo Clinic - Spread of breast cancer to lungs in asthma patients may be prevented by use of common inhalers
Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Arizona suggest there may be a link between asthma and the spread of cancer in breast cancer patients. Importantly, using available inhaler medications could reduce potential metastasis to the lungs in breast cancer patients who have asthma. The study was conducted in mice and supported by examination of breast cancer patient records. The results, according to the researchers, offer a biological link: Activation of cells that line blood vessels is required for the movement of pro-inflammatory white blood cells (which occurs in asthma) and for the movement of circulating cancer cells from the blood into lung tissue.
In the study, mice that were exposed to an allergen commonly used in mouse asthma studies and then injected with melanoma cells were compared to control groups of mice that did not suffer from allergic asthma. The allergen-induced pulmonary inflammation in the asthmatic mice was associated with an almost 400 percent increase in lung metastasis in these animals. But in mice treated with a medication currently available to asthma patients that reduces their lung inflammation (corticosteroids self-administered using hand-held inhalers), the rate of metastasis fell to that seen in mice that were not exposed to an allergen.
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In the study, mice that were exposed to an allergen commonly used in mouse asthma studies and then injected with melanoma cells were compared to control groups of mice that did not suffer from allergic asthma. The allergen-induced pulmonary inflammation in the asthmatic mice was associated with an almost 400 percent increase in lung metastasis in these animals. But in mice treated with a medication currently available to asthma patients that reduces their lung inflammation (corticosteroids self-administered using hand-held inhalers), the rate of metastasis fell to that seen in mice that were not exposed to an allergen.
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