Asthma

In a late-stage clinical trial, the biologic agent dupilumab reduced the rate of severe asthma attacks and improved lung function and asthma control for children ages 6 to 11 with moderate-to-severe asthma, offering a new option to these patients. Read More

Heather Pua, MD, PhD, one of 60 investigators to receive the 2019 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, will explore a novel type of cell signaling by RNAs in allergic airway inflammation. Read More

Infants who have higher amounts of the bacterium Lactobacillus present in their nose or upper part of the throat during an acute respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection are less likely to develop childhood wheezing later in life, a new Vanderbilt-led Center for Asthma Research study found. Read More

New findings from Vanderbilt suggest that blocking the migration of cells involved in asthma may represent a new approach for treating the respiratory condition. Read More

In childhood, asthma is more common in boys than girls. But around the time of puberty, that picture reverses. By mid-life women are twice as likely as men to have asthma. Read More

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine and the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism recently received a $1.25 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Read More

A peptide molecule relaxes airway smooth muscle and may be a potential therapeutic for asthma that has become resistant to standard therapies. Read More

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine recently received a $4.5 million Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Center (AADCRC) grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Read More

A number of factors during infancy increase the risk that a child will later develop asthma. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers show that a certain factor negatively impacts the first-line responder cells in the lungs, providing one explanation for why patients with asthma are at greater risk for invasive bacterial disease. Read More

The timing of folic acid-containing prescription filling during pregnancy was associated with childhood asthma, according to a new Vanderbilt study. Read More

Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, the Ernest W. Goodpasture Professor of Pathology, has received a Scholar Award from the American Asthma Foundation (AAF). Read More

A particular gene is associated with a specific type of inflammatory response in people with asthma – a finding that could suggest new therapeutic targets for treating asthma. Read More

Drugs such as aspirin and indomethacin may increase sensitivity to airborne allergens by suppressing production of the signaling molecule PGI2, which in turn may offer a new treatment for allergies. Read More

An immune system factor associated with severe asthma may actually reduce asthma attacks induced by viral infections. Read More

Tina Hartert, M.D., MPH, left, Kathryn Miller, M.D., MPH, and Yarris Muhammed are on the team studying the links between rhinoviruses and bronchiolitis. (Mary Donaldson / Vanderbilt) An infant’s risk of developing bronchiolitis caused by human rhinoviruses (HRV), aka the common cold, is linked to whether the mother has allergies… Read More