Latest Airway Stories

Washington University School of Medicine Respiratory conditions that restrict breathing such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common killers worldwide. But no effective treatments exist to address the major cause of death in these conditions – excess mucus production. "There is good evidence that what kills people with severe COPD or asthma is mucus obstructing the airway," says Michael J. Holtzman, MD, the Selma and Herman Seldin Professor of Medicine at...

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill recently published a study on their work to understand how human lungs clean out mucus from colds and allergy, making the airways free of foreign matter that may be toxic or infectious to the body. The findings, published in a recent issue of the journal Science, will help scientists identify issues related to human lung diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive...

The lung clearance index (LCI) is a sensitive non-invasive marker of early lung disease in young children with cystic fibrosis (CF), according to a new study from Australian researchers. "We found that LCI is elevated early in children with CF, especially in the presence of airway inflammation and Pseudomonas aeruginosa," said Yvonne Belessis, MBBS, MPH, PhD, respiratory staff specialist at the Sydney Children's Hospital. "LCI may not only be a marker of early CF lung disease, but may be...

Smoking may be associated with the development of molecular features of cancer in the large airway epithelium. In the small airway epithelium, molecular cancerization is associated with development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to recent data. "We are striving to find the earliest molecular changes that are induced by environmental stressors — in this case, smoking," said Renat Shaykhiev, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – The world’s first artificial trachea transplant seeded with stem cells proved to be a success after being done on Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Beyene had a tracheal tumor that extended to the lowest 5cm of the trachea along with both bronchi meaning that surgical removal of the tumor alone would not keep the patient alive. The removed section was essential for life and therefore had to be replaced. The...

Working together, scientists and clinicians make research breakthrough that paves the way for novel therapies for respiratory diseases Scientists at A*STAR'S Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), have made a breakthrough discovery in the understanding of lung regeneration. Their research showed for the first time that distal airway stem cells (DASCs), a specific type of stem cells in the lungs, are involved in forming new alveoli to replace and...

Guided by insights into how mice recover after H1N1 flu, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, together with researchers at A*STAR of Singapore, have cloned three distinct stem cells from the human airways and demonstrated that one of these cells can form into the lung's alveoli air sac tissue. What's more, the researchers showed that these same lung stem cells are rapidly deployed in a dynamic process of lung regeneration to combat damage from infection or...

Researchers from Duke University Medical Center have identified how nanoparticles from diesel exhaust damage lung airway cells, a finding that could lead to new therapies for people susceptible to airway disease.The scientists also discovered that the severity of the injury depends on the genetic make-up of the affected individual."We gained insight into why some people can remain relatively healthy in polluted areas and why others don't," said lead author Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D.,...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a common disease which affects the entire body, causing progressive disability and often-early death.  Patients with normal to mildly impaired lung function, however, may be given some new hope thanks to a recent study investigating a novel drug.  It's called denufosol, and it is an investigational treatment designed to help prevent formation of the sticky mucus that is a characteristic of the disease. "Although the lungs of children...

Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with normal to mildly impaired lung function may benefit from a new investigational drug designed to help prevent formation of the sticky mucus that is a hallmark of the disease, according to researchers involved in a phase 3 clinical trial of the drug. Called denufosol, the investigational medication can be given early in the CF disease process, and may help delay the progression of lung disease in these patients, the researchers found.The findings were...