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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Researchers have discovered why asthma often worsens when sufferers catch a cold. The findings suggest that blocking an inflammatory molecule called IL-25 could benefit asthmatics during the cold season. It’s known that colds make asthma worse (hospitalizations among asthmatics whose colds bring on attacks lead to millions of emergency room visits each year), but doctors have been in the dark as to why this is the case. Janine Beale and colleagues found that compared to healthy individuals, epithelial cells in the lungs of asthmatic patients are more prone to producing IL-25 in the presence of rhinovirus, the virus that causes the common cold. In mice experiments, the authors show that, similar to the findings in humans, ‘allergic’ animals produced more IL-25 compared to control animals. The increase in IL-25 was accompanied by increases in mucus and several types of immune-activating cells. The results hint that targeting IL-25 could be a new therapy for relieving for asthma attacks brought on by colds. A related Focus article discusses the findings.
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