Asthma has been linked with a lowered risk of brain tumors, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know why.
Immune cells activated under conditions of asthma are less able to promote the growth of brain tumors. The findings could lead to new therapeutic approaches.
It comes down to the behavior of T cells, a type of immune cell. When a person — or a mouse — develops asthma, their T cells become activated. In a new mouse study, researchers discovered that asthma causes the T cells to behave in a way that induces lung inflammation but prevents the growth of brain tumors. What’s bad news for the airways may be good news for the brain.
The findings, available online in Nature Communications, suggest that reprogramming T cells in brain tumor patients to act more like T cells in asthma patients could be a new approach to treating brain tumors.
“Of course, we’re not going to start inducing asthma in anyone; asthma can be a lethal disease,” said senior author David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology. “But what if we could trick the T cells into thinking they’re asthma T cells when they enter the brain, so they no longer support brain tumor formation and growth? These findings open the door to new kinds of therapies targeting T cells and their interactions with cells in the brain.”
Get the full story at sciencedaily.com.
Asthma May Lower Risk of Brain Tumors
Go To Source For Respiratory Therapy Coverage
RT delivers in-depth coverage of the clinical, regulatory, and technology landscape for respiratory therapy—and reaches more than 28,000 key decision-makers and influencers. As one of healthcare’s most important data companies, we facilitate the rapid adoption of medical devices and practice management tools into the industry.
