Inhaled Therapy Disrupts Excess Mucus Production in Allergic Asthma Model
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January 13, 2021
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Nature Communications, the scientists explained how they created an inhaled treatment that disrupted the production of excess mucus by reducing disulfide bonds in mice and opening up their airways. The same treatment had similar impacts on human mucus samples.
“Current asthma treatments have minimal effects on mucus, and the lack of therapeutic options stems from a poor understanding of mucus function and dysfunction at a molecular level and in vivo. Biophysical properties of mucus are controlled by mucin glycoproteins that polymerize covalently via disulfide bonds. Once secreted, mucin glycopolymers can aggregate, form plugs, and block airflow,” write the investigators.
Excess mucus in the lungs can be fatal for asthma patients, but scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have broken up those secretions at the molecular level and reversed their often deadly impacts.
Researchers disrupt molecule that causes excess mucus in lungs, may prompt new treatments for pulmonary disease Excess mucus in the lungs can be fatal.