New discovery could help asthma patients breath better

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New discovery could help asthma patients breath better

The discovery of material which causes scarring in the lungs could help asthma sufferershave less trouble breathing.

Scar tissue is a major contributor to asthma attacks, because scarring builds up insidepulmonary air passages and reduces the amount of oxygen available during breathing.

Dr JANETTE BURGESS from the University of Sydney's Woolcock Institute of Medical Researchsays current treatments for asthma can't prevent the build-up of scar tissue.

But Dr BURGESS says asthma patients have been found to produce up to 20 times morethan healthy people of a protein material which produces scarring.

Asthma patients also lack another natural substance which stops scar tissue forming.

Armed with this knowledge, researchers can now develop a new asthma drug and market it.

AAP RTV ra/dk/rca/smbi

KEYWORD: ASTHMA (MELBOURNE)