• Question: Is there a cure for asthma?

    Asked by etaylor to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      I just answered a related question: “are allergies curable?” Have a look at that. I suspect a similar approach to the one I described there for peanut allergy might succeed, if you could work out how to deliver the allergen.

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      I don’t think there currently is a cure, but scientists are definitely working on it!

      So far we’ve figured out that one main type of immune cell, called the Th2 cells, goes a little crazy during asthma, and produces too much of a set of chemicals called cytokines. This is slightly different from allergies, where the culprits are B cells who produce the wrong antibodies. I’m not sure if the desensitisation method that Peter described will also work on this type of disease – but some scientists are trying to use drugs to block cytokine production in the Th2 cells. Let’s hope we get a cure out of that!

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Hi etaylor

      not at the moment, but the symptoms are treatable- you may know some of these. For example, inhalers, nebulisers and steroids are commonly used for this, and its important to identify and avoid what causes the asthma if it is something specific.

      The most likely area for a cure would be looking at ways of controlling the immune system- I’ll leave that to the immunologists!

      Hope this helps 🙂

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