New drug may help alleviate breathing problems

A new drug could help millions of people with lung diseases such as asthma and emphysema that cause symptoms ranging from coughing to severe breathing difficulties.

The drug inhibits the excessive production of mucus in the respiratory tract. Mucus plays a vital role in keeping the lungs and airways healthy by trapping moisture and trapping particles such as dust and germs that can cause irritation or infection.

Tiny hair-like cells called cilia move in a wavy motion and then carry the mucus out of the body, which contains unwanted microbes and other substances in the mucus.

But people with asthma, viral infections, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an umbrella term for chronic lung conditions including emphysema, can produce too much mucus.

In some cases, this can lead to a life-threatening buildup that can completely block the airways.

Current treatments include steroid inhalers to blunt the inflammation that promotes mucus formation in people with asthma, and mucus-thinning medications for people with COPD and cystic fibrosis.

But now scientists have discovered an alternative.

The experimental drug, called PEN-SP9, blocks the action of a protein involved in excessive mucus production.

The drug was developed by scientists from the University of Texas and Stanford University, both in the United States, to target the synaptotagmin protein.

People with asthma, viral infections, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a collective term for chronic lung conditions including emphysema, can produce too much mucus.

This binds to calcium molecules released by inflammatory cells in the lungs and causes a reaction between the two that increases mucus production.

The new drug disrupts the binding of synaptotagmin to calcium molecules. “This is the first substance to specifically relieve pathological hypersecretion of mucus,” the researchers said.

The journal Nature reported earlier this year that when scientists tested the drug in mice, it reduced mucus production to normal, healthy levels without completely eliminating it. Human experiments could begin in two or three years.

Professor James Chalmers, respiratory consultant at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and chair of the British Thoracic Society’s science and research committee, commented on the study: “We have a lot of drugs for respiratory diseases right now, but don’t do it for me”. It has really good drugs that reduce mucus production.

“This is an exciting development, but still at a very early stage.”

Overproduction of a mucosal protein may even protect some people with allergic asthma from Covid.

It is known that people with allergy-induced asthma tend to produce more mucus protein than MUC5AC.

Now, laboratory studies by scientists from the University of North Carolina in the United States have shown that “allergic airways” that release more inflammatory protein IL-13 and produce more MUC5AC can inhibit the spread of the virus. from the National Academy of Sciences.

rough health

According to a study in the journal Endocrinology, stress can affect female fertility.

When the researchers exposed the mice to screaming sounds for three weeks — a common stress test — they lowered fertility-related hormone levels and reduced the number and quality of eggs, resulting in smaller nests.