Asthma Drug From the Garden Center

저자：   업로드：2017-09-18  조회수：

    The coralberry could offer new hope for asthmatics.  An international team of scientists says they have extracted a new type of active pharmaceutical ingredient from coralberry leaves to combat asthma, a widespread respiratory disease. The leaves contain a substance named FR900359 and it inhibited the contraction of the airways in mice.  The plant itself is not exotic: it can be found in any well-stocked garden center.

    Their study ("Targeted Inhibition of G_q Signaling Induces Airway Relaxation in Mouse Models of Asthma") is published in Science Translational Medicine.

    "We...hypothesized that pharmacological G_q inhibition could serve as a central mechanism to achieve efficient therapeutic bronchorelaxation. We found that the compound FR900359 (FR), a membrane-permeable inhibitor of G_q, was effective in silencing G_q signaling in murine and human airway smooth muscle cells. Moreover, FR both prevented bronchoconstrictor responses and triggered sustained airway relaxation in mouse, pig, and human airway tissue ex vivo," write the investigators. "Inhalation of FR in healthy wild-type mice resulted in high local concentrations of the compound in the lungs and prevented airway constriction without acute effects on blood pressure and heart rate. FR administration also protected against airway hyperreactivity in murine models of allergen sensitization using ovalbumin and house dust mite as allergens. Our findings establish FR as a selective G_q inhibitor when applied locally to the airways of mice in vivo and suggest that pharmacological blockade of G_q proteins may be a useful therapeutic strategy to achieve bronchorelaxation in asthmatic lung disease."

    Researchers at the Institutes of Physiology I, Pharmaceutical Biology, and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bonn, and asthma specialists from Nottingham in the U.K., report that FR appears to be more effective and has a more prolonged method of action in relieving bronchial spasms than salbutamol.

    "We have so far only tested the substance in asthmatic mice," explains junior professor Daniela Wenzel, Dr. Med., who is the study leader doing research in respiratory diseases at the Institute of Physiology I at the University of Bonn. "This compound inhibits critical signaling molecules in our cells, the G_q proteins," which are involved in key functions in many processes in the body, including control of the airway tone.