Science / Medicine : Asthma Gene Is Cloned

Japanese scientists said last week that they had artificially reproduced a gene that plays an important role in causing asthma, the respiratory ailment that is the most widespread chronic disease in the developed world. Researchers from the University of Tokyo reported in Nature that their discovery could make it possible for the first time to design effective drugs against asthma and other inflammatory diseases.

Asthma is caused by an inflammation of lung and bronchial tissue that closes off the victim’s ability to breathe freely. The gene, called a cell receptor, provides the gateway into the cell for infection by Platelet Activating Factor (PAF), a protein believed to play a crucial role in the serious attacks that accompany bronchial asthma and toxic shock syndrome.

Medical researchers constantly search for cell receptors for disease-causing proteins because they can then design drugs that dismantle the receptor.