Elucidation of mechanisms for developing new strategies on a viral infection-induced steroid-resistant asthma

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K19431
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Respiratory organ internal medicine
• Research Institution: Tokyo Women's Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Ashino Shigeru 東京女子医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (10507221)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 気管支喘息

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present study, we first established an asthma exacerbation model mouse with a viral component poly I:C, which can mimic virus infection. It has been demonstrated that the airway hyperrrsponsiveness was higher in the poly I:C-induced asthma exacerbation model compared to regular asthma model. In addition, steroid-resistant neutrophilic airway inflammation with pulmonary Th1/Th17 cytokine productions was observed in the asthma exacerbation model. It has also found that innate immunity cytokines-associated signal molecules were activated in the helper T (Th) cells from the lung of exacerbated asthma model. We plan to demonstrate that targeting the molecules would be effective in improving the asthma exacerbation. On the other hand, since steroid resistance-related genes were not increased in the Th cells, we are investigating whether dendritic cells and airway epithelial cells have those molecules that could be targets for treatment of the steroid-resistant airway inflammation.

Free Research Field

呼吸器疾患