Asthma sufferers may feel better in the long run: study

Washington, Apr 15 (UNI) Suffering from Asthma? Richard Bond, associate professor of pharmacology at University of Houston, is relying on a long-standing medical taboo to treat asthma.

Bond first applied this hypothesis in studies with mice and then moved on to two clinical trials with humans. Currently in the second clinical trial, the part of this research analysing mice was recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, which cited the relevance of Bond's work as possibly leading to a paradigm shift in the treatment of asthma. The results of the first human trial were also recently published in Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics Acute asthma attacks have traditionally been treated with inhaler-type stimulant drugs that open constricted airways.

Bond's tests initially done on asthmatic mice and later replicated in his first clinical trial with humans showed that while beta blockers initially made breathing problems worse, their continued use resulted in improved respiratory function after a 28-day period.

"In order to move certain ideas forward, science often needs to be a collaborative effort," Bond said. "You must find the right people willing to act as a team. I have been very lucky in that people have given my ideas a chance" quoted Bond as saying in Science daily.

Using beta blockers when it seems a stimulant is called for defies medical dogma, but this is not a new concept. Bond's work builds on an earlier breakthrough in treating congestive heart failure (CHF), in which case patients had been treated for decades with stimulant drugs to increase cardiac output. Beta blockers were prohibited because they initially further reduced the heart's pumping power, but the stimulants ultimately caused the heart to wear out over time from the increased activity.

"If we continue down this path, replicating these results, this paradoxical approach to asthma treatment may well become an important new approach to asthma therapy," said Dr William J.

Garner, CEO of Inverseon.

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