New hope for chronic lung disease patients

St. Louis -- U.S. medical scientists have found a new type of immune response that might lead to improved treatment of people with chronic inflammatory lung disease.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said the immune response is activated in patients with severe asthma and COPD -- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

"We've cracked the first part of the molecular code that links a viral infection to the later development of chronic inflammatory diseases like asthma and COPD," said senior author Dr. Michael Holtzman, a professor of medicine and a pulmonary specialist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "With this information, we can more precisely diagnose and monitor these types of diseases and then better target our treatment to specific abnormalities.

That's a big step forward from simply monitoring breathing status."

The findings are reported in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.