Active clinical trials for "Asthma"

This research aims to find out how the inflammation in patients suffering from severe asthma is different from that in non-severe asthma, and how it may prevent corticosteroids from working efficiently in severe asthma. It will look,in particular, at a protein enzyme called p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK for short)which controls the activation of several important pathways in the cell. We wish to find out whether this enzyme is more active in cells obtained from patients with severe asthma compared to those with non-severe asthma. We would like to understand how this enzyme can cause the cell to respond less well to the anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids. We also wish to find out whether any specific inhibitors of p38 MAPK can improve severe asthma by improving the effects of corticosteroids on these cells. We hypothesise that activation of the intracellular MAPK signalling pathway underlies the inflammatory processes of severe asthma, and leads to the diminution of the anti-inflammatory actions of CS through histone modification.

The purpose of this study is to determine if dietary supplementation with soy isoflavones in persistent asthma improves airway reactivity as determined by PC20 to methacholine.

Background: Nasal polyps are found in about 5% of asthmatic patients.A close link exists between the upper and lower airways and the concept of the "United Airways" has emerged mainly from studies on allergic rhinitis and asthma. However, other upper airway diseases, such as chronic sinusitis and nasal polyposis may influence lower airway diseases. As for nasal polyposis, eosinophils are the major effector cells in asthma and have been associated with a worsening of this condition. Aim: To compare normal nasal mucosa and nasal polyp biopsies from subjects with nasal polyposis with or without asthma. Hypothesis: Nasal polyps from asthmatic subjects show a more aggressive pro-inflammatory pattern of cytokine expression compared to nasal polyps from non asthmatic subjects, and therefore contribute to the development and severity of asthma.

The study compares the biochemical markers in bronchoalveolar lavage samples from asthmatic children to those markers found in non-asthmatic children with other respiratory diseases. The investigators hypothesize that certain markers will be associated specifically with asthma.

This will be a single center, open label study comparing baseline characteristics of recovered sputum cells (collected on screening day) to those of cells recovered 6 hours after inhalational challenge with 20,000 EU Clinical Center Reference Endotoxin (CCRE, a component of air pollution)) within each group as well as cross group comparisons between individuals with allergic asthma (AA's)and normal volunteers (NV's). The primary objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that persons with allergic asthma will have an increased neutrophil response to challenge with 20,000 EU CCRE compared to normal volunteers. Secondary objectives include post CCRE comparison between AA's and NV's with regard to changes in airway cells and blood as well as changes in mucociliary clearance (MCC) in response to inhalation of 20,000 EU CCRE.

The goal of treatment with AICS is weaning from oral corticosteroids, i.e. a reduction of the oral corticosteroid dose. An anticipated treatment benefit of AICS is a reduction of oral corticosteroid dose and stability/improvement of clinical parameters related to asthma in the targeted subject population. Ultimately, the goal is to free subjects with severe asthma from the burden of chronic oral steroid therapy.

Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disease in children and has much effect on their life and study, which leads to huge economic burden and pressure to the whole families. Some children will develop into adult patients so that asthma can be the life-long vigorous trouble. In recent years, the prevalence rate of children asthma is increasingly going up worldwide. The prevalence rate in last 12 months reported in USA, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand was between 12% to 30%. Center for Asthma Prevention and Education of Capital Institute of Pediatrics investigated the national asthma prevalence in 900 thousands children in 27 provinces and cities, which average rate was 0.11% to 2.03% in 1990. In 2000, we investigated it again in 31 provinces(43 cities) and the average national children asthma prevalence rate was 1.97%(0.25% to 4.63%) which was much higher than that in 1990.

The purposes of this study are to determine the effects of omalizumab on cells involved in the allergic response, to evaluate predictors of response to omalizumab, and to determine whether response to omalizumab therapy is influenced by the environment. A subset of inner-city children and adolescents currently enrolled in Inner-City Anti-IgE Therapy for Asthma (a clinical trial of omalizumab) will be enrolled in this study.

Being a key player in Asthma, eosinophils constitute a potential target to interfere with the series of biological events leading to Asthma pathogenesis. In this proposal, the investigators hypothesize that the interaction between eosinophils and airway smooth muscle cells (ASM) cells plays an important role in airway remodeling. Hence the investigators will investigate the role of eosinophils in enhancing ASM cells proliferation resulting in airways remodeling. The investigators will also investigate the mechanism behind this phenomenon. This will then pave the way for medical (drug) interference at one or several sites in order to prevent one of the main potential reasons behind airway remodeling, namely eosinophil-derived ASM proliferation.

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammation which involves the interplay of different types of inflammatory cells and cytokines in the airway. The presence of systemic inflammation and oxidative stress in asthma suggests that it has a propensity to develop cardiovascular morbidity. Recent small scale studies have demonstrated that asthma severity may be associated with both airway and systemic inflammation. The investigators' study aims at linking asthma severity to airway and systemic inflammation, and subsequently to cardiovascular morbidity if a significant association of the aforementioned is present. The role of airway inflammation in contribution to systemic inflammation , and potential interaction between these two conditions will also be studied.