Lung health genes found

Monday December 14th, 2009

British scientists say they have made a medical breakthrough in discovering five genes linked to the health of the lung.

It is hoped the finding will lead to new treatments for asthma and the common lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The genetic variations, reported last night, are linked to lung function, which measures the breathing capacity of the lung.

Doctors have known for a while that poor lung function can run in families - and this creates an increased risk of COPD.

Some 20,000 people were studied by 96 scientists in 63 centres in Europe and Australia.

The work was led by Dr Martin Tobin, of Leicester University, UK, and Professor Ian Hall, of Nottingham University, UK, with backing from Asthma UK and the British Medical Research Council.

In total the scientists studied some 2.5 million sites within the human gene pool for the research, announced in Nature Genetics.

Dr Tobin said: "This work is important because until now we have known very little about the genetic factors that determine an individual's lung function.

"By identifying the genes important in determining lung function, we can start to unravel the underlying mechanisms which control both lung development and lung damage. This will lead to a better understanding of diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma.

"Crucially, it could open up new opportunities to manage and treat patients with lung conditions."

Nature Genetics 13 December 2009 | doi:10.1038/ng.501

Tags: Allergies & Asthma | Australia | Respiratory | UK News

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