With $7 million grant, researchers plan a fresh approach to finding the disease's causes

With the aid of a $7 million grant, researchers from the Arizona Respiratory Center will study the role genetics and environment play in the development of asthma.

Dr. Fernando Martinez, director of the center and a University of Arizona pediatrics professor, is heading up the study and said the research team hopes to develop new strategies to prevent children from acquiring the chronic disease.

"We are on the brink of new findings," he said.

Asthma is a lung disease characterized by irritation of the trachea and bronchial tubes and causes narrowing of the airways, shortness of breath and wheezing.

Martinez said asthma, which affects nearly 17 million Americans, normally begins to occur early in life.

Anne Wright, research associate for respiratory sciences, said UA researchers have enrolled Tucson children in its program and will track their lives from birth to age 5.

"Pregnant mothers have enrolled their kids in the study," she said. "We will follow them from birth to see what environmental exposures these kids encounter. Then we'll see who did or did not develop the disease."

She said researchers will examine patients' immune systems and look for the exposures that increase the risk of getting the disease.

"A lot has changed since our immune system evolved, and it may no longer be able to respond to as many bacteria as it used to," she said.

Doctors can already treat the disease by using medication, but patients' symptoms may reappear under it, and risk factors like smoking and pollution can make the asthma more severe.

Martinez said researchers hope to understand how the immune system develops and if it can be modified to prevent the disease.

"It is a very exciting and ambitious plan," he said. "We want to do something to prevent people in the future from getting the disease."

The grant was awarded by the National Institute of Health's Specialized Center of Research.