More findings on gene involved in childhood asthma

The most common chronic illness among children in the developed world, asthma is a complex disease in which a variety of genes are thought to interact with each other and with environmental influences to produce its effects. As in many other genetic diseases, researchers expect that better knowledge of gene associations will pave the way for new treatments and to customizing treatments to each patient's genetic profile.

Researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that variants in the ORMDL3 gene were associated with childhood-onset asthma among U.S. patients of European ancestry. In 2007 a study team based in Europe had identified the ORMDL3 gene, located on chromosome 17, as contributing to childhood asthma among British and German children.

The current study, from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, appeared as a brief online report Aug. 29 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

"We replicated the European findings among American children, and showed that the gene plays a role in asthma of any severity level," said study leader and pediatric pulmonologist Hakon Hakonarson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Genomics at Children's Hospital. "The previous group had detected the association of ORMDL3 with asthma by examining families having two or three members with severe disease."

Furthermore, said Hakonarson, "Through the testing of additional markers, our data suggest that other genes outside the region occupied by ORMDL3 might have important roles in raising susceptibility to asthma." His group plans further studies to further refine this and other regions.

Drawing on patients from the Children's Hospital network, the study team analyzed DNA from 807 white children with asthma, compared to 2,583 white children without the disease. Another cohort consisted of African American children, of whom 1,456 had asthma and 1,973 were healthy controls. The researchers used highly automated gene-scanning equipment at Children's Hospital's Center for Applied Genomics, the largest pediatric genotyping program in the world.

"Because asthma is a very heterogeneous disease, the genes involved in childhood-onset asthma may be very different from those involved in asthma that first appears in adults," said Hakonarson. "Furthermore, the biological mechanisms by which genetic variants contribute to asthma are not well understood. However, we will continue our investigations, to shed light on how we might use genetic knowledge to develop more effective treatments for this common disease. These treatments will be a form of personalized medicine, better tailored to the genetic makeup of the individual patient."

Source: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Study shows school-based program enables children and adolescents to better manage chronic disease
A new study has found that a school-based asthma education program conducted in the Oakland, California school district was shown to reduce symptoms and increase the number of days that children who suffered from asthma were able to go to school. The study will be published this month in the Journal of School Health.
A spoonful of sugar?
The widespread problem of children failing to take their medication for a range of life-threatening illnesses is to be tackled as part of a new university research project.
Asthma inhalers to go 'green' on Dec. 31
(AP) -- Last warning: Asthma inhalers go "green" on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch. The medicine inside these rescue inhalers - the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack - isn't changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.
Place of birth contributes to asthma disparity
Tufts researchers and colleagues report that place of birth plays a role in the occurrence of asthma in a United States black population. The researchers found that within one inner-city population, blacks born in the United States were more likely to have asthma than blacks who were born outside of the United States.
Study: Childhood constipation just as serious as asthma
Car and airplane trips, holiday goodies, new toys, and unfamiliar surroundings. The holidays are a crazy time for kids, often causing their bathroom habits to get out of whack. What might sound like a minor inconvenience is actually a common, sometimes serious problem for children, and not just around the holidays. Now a new study finds childhood constipation is costing us all.
Fall babies: Born to wheeze?
It is said that timing is everything, and that certainly appears to be true for autumn infants. Children who are born four months before the height of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma than children born at any other time of year, according to new research.
Traffic pollution worsens symptoms in asthmatic children
Traffic pollution, especially in cities, adversely affects respiratory health in children with asthma. A study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research has found that in this vulnerable group, worsening of respiratory symptoms requiring recurrent additional treatment.
Antibodies to cockroach and mouse proteins associated with asthma and allergies risk
A study released by researchers at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health shows that developing antibodies to cockroach and mouse proteins is associated with a greater risk for wheeze, hay fever, and eczema in preschool urban children as young as three years of age. The study, published in the November 2008 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, is the first to focus on the links between antibody responses to cockroach and mouse proteins and respiratory and allergic symptoms in such a young age group.

More findings on gene involved in childhood asthma

Related stories:

News discussion: