A new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine reports the discovery of a potential new target to treat asthma attacks caused by colds.

Share on Pinterest It has not been clear until now how a rhinovirus infection triggers the inflammation typical of an asthma attack, where the airways become obstructed and mucus production increases.

World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that about 235 million people worldwide have asthma. About 80-90% of asthma attacks are caused by infections of the airways, particularly by rhinoviruses, which are also the main cause of the common cold.

In people with asthma, an otherwise-mild illness caused by a rhinovirus can trigger potentially severe attacks that may require hospitalization.

However, it has not been clear until now how a rhinovirus infection triggers the inflammation typical of an asthma attack, where the airways become obstructed and mucus production increases – known as the type-2 immune response.

To try and answer this, UK-based researchers from the Medical Research Council & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at Imperial College London and King’s College London examined cells taken from the lungs of people with asthma and from healthy volunteers.

The researchers found that when the lung cells were infected with a rhinovirus, the cells from people with asthma produced around 10 times as many IL-25 cytokines as the cells from healthy volunteers.

Investigating further, the team infected both asthmatic and healthy volunteers with a rhinovirus and studied the IL-25 response across the two groups. The researchers found that the asthmatic participants had a higher level of IL-25 in nasal secretions than the healthy volunteers.