2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of new refractory asthma treatments of targeting OX40 ligand.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24790093
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Biological pharmacy
Research Institution	Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science
Principal Investigator	OHTOMO TAKAYUKI 東京薬科大学, 薬学部, 助教 (90463108)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	気管支喘息
Research Abstract	Steroid-resistant T cell is thought to be one of the causes to refractory asthma. It is necessary for two receptors signaling in order to activate T cells. One is antigen-specific signal through the T cell receptor (TCR), and the other is antigen non-specific signal through the co-stimulatory molecules. It is known that the steroid resistance of T cell more increases when stimulated both TCR signal and co-stimulatory signals compared to only TCR signal. OX40 ligand is one of the co-stimulatory molecules. In this study, we investigated steroids-sensitivity of T cell under the condition of OX40 ligand defect. It was observed that asthmatic reaction (eosinophil infiltration and airway hyperresponsiveness) of OX40 deficient mice was reduced by low-concentrated steroids, but that of wild type mice was not. Thus, it is thought that OX40 ligand could be a new molecule target of development of refractory asthma drug.