Alterations of the lung methylome in allergic airway hyper-responsiveness

In Utero Cigarette Smoke Affects Allergic Airway Disease But Does Not Alter the Lung Methylome

Prenatal and postnatal cigarette smoke exposure enhances the risk of developing asthma. Despite this as well as other smoking related risks, 11% of women still smoke during pregnancy. We hypothesized that cigarette smoke exposure during prenatal development generates long lasting differential methylation altering transcriptional activity that correlates with disease. In a house dust mite (HDM) ...

Curine inhibits eosinophil activation and airway hyper-responsiveness in a mouse model of allergic asthma.

Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease with increasing prevalence around the world. Current asthma therapy includes drugs that usually cause significant side effects, justifying the search for new anti-asthmatic drugs. Curine is a bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloid that modulates calcium influx in many cell types; however, its anti-allergic and putative toxic effects remain to be ...

Syk Regulates Neutrophilic Airway Hyper-Responsiveness in a Chronic Mouse Model of Allergic Airways Inflammation

BACKGROUND Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by airways hyper-responsiveness (AHR), reversible airway obstruction, and airway inflammation and remodeling. We previously showed that Syk modulates methacholine-induced airways contractility in naïve mice and in mice with allergic airways inflammation. We hypothesize that Syk plays a role in the pathogenesis of AHR; this was ev...

Inhaled CD86 antisense oligonucleotide suppresses pulmonary inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness in allergic mice.

The B7-family molecule CD86, expressed on the surface of pulmonary and thoracic lymph node antigen-presenting cells, delivers essential costimulatory signals for T-cell activation in response to inhaled allergens. CD86-CD28 signaling is involved in priming allergen-specific T cells, but it is unclear whether these interactions play a role in coordinating memory T-helper 2 cell responses. In the...

Mouse Model of Allergic Inflammation and Airway Hyper-Responsiveness in a Flt-3 Ligand Reverses Late Allergic Response