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Inflammation & Allergy - Drug Targets (Discontinued)

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1871-5281
ISSN (Online): 2212-4055

Treating Asthma as a Neuroelectrical Disorder

Author(s): Ba X. Hoang, D. Graeme Shaw, Phuong Pham and Stephen A. Levine

Volume 9, Issue 2, 2010

Page: [130 - 134] Pages: 5

DOI: 10.2174/187152810791292827

Price: $65

Abstract

The trend in asthma therapy for the last two decades has been based on the suppression of inflammation and bronchodilation via adrenergic agonism or cholinergic antagonism. These strategies help to control asthmatic symptoms but do not lead to a cure. Substantial populations of patients may still have poorly managed symptoms and suffer a decline in quality of life due to the disease. Reversible airflow obstruction and nonspecific airway reactivity are the key features of asthma. Inflammatory changes do not correlate always with symptoms in asthma patients. It is our opinion that the primary defect in asthma is cell membrane excitation — bronchoconstriction and reactivity — rather than inflammation. Our research, clinical experience and the accumulated evidence from medical literature strongly suggest that controlling other excitatory mechanisms such as voltage-gate sodium channel and glutamate receptors in the central nervous system and lung tissue could lead to more effective and safer strategies for asthma prevention and treatment.

Keywords: Asthma, bronchoconstriction, ion channels, glutamate receptors, inflammation


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