Pictured: Tom Iosifidis
An exciting study is investigating whether a new therapeutic treatment for asthma will protect young sufferers from ongoing lung damage and improve their long-term health outcomes.
Researchers at the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre have discovered an Food and Drug Administration-approved medication traditionally used to treat pain in children and adults – that enhances repair and reduces inflammation in airway epithelial cells from children with asthma.
This discovery was led by Dr Thomas Iosifidis and his team whose research focuses on epithelial cells, which line the surface of the lungs.
“These cells form our lung’s first line of defence, providing a barrier against the outside environment, and are responsible for the initial responses to injury and infection such as viruses - one of the main triggers of asthma flare-ups,” Dr Iosifidis said.
These early responses to triggers have been under-studied because of the invasive nature of accessing airway tissue, particularly in children.
However, the team at the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre pioneered access to these airway samples and shown that the airway lining of children with asthma has abnormal responses to injury, is inherently “leaky” and inflamed, contributing to ongoing and worsening breathing problems.
Most importantly, the data suggest that the treatment strategy we’ve discovered may not only heal damaged airways, but also reduce the recurrence and severity of asthma flareups in children,” Dr Iosifidis said.
The research team, including collaborators at the University of Newcastle, was granted a patent in 2022 on the ‘Promotion of Epithelial Repair’, potentially paving the way for a new class of drugs which target a previously unknown asthma pathway.
“Our team, together with collaborators nationally and internationally, is now investigating the preclinical safety and effectiveness of these therapeutics, prior to clinical trial assessment,” Dr Iosifidis said.
“In the near future, our treatment solution will be able to help heal the airways of children with asthma, protecting them from ongoing damage and improving their long-term health outcomes.”
The Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre is a powerhouse partnership between the Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children’s Hospital Foundation and Perth Children’s Hospital.
New treatments needed
Asthma remains a significant global healthcare burden, with more than 330 million sufferers worldwide. Young children are arguably the most disproportionally affected by asthma. In fact, asthma is the most common lifelong breathing disorder in children, with one in six Australian children experiencing asthma.
Despite use of current treatments, asthma remains one of the main causes of hospitalisation in children, resulting in time lost from school and work for parents and carers of children with asthma. Children with ongoing asthma also remain at the highest risk of lifelong respiratory diseases like severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Although there are ways to treat asthma symptoms, there is a pressing need for new treatments that focus on the root causes of asthma in early life so long-term health outcomes can be improved.