Gastrointestinal stimulation as a strategy for asthma control

[HysteryDiagnosis]

Someday soon we may have a new and hopefully effective way to deal with asthma... this looks promising.

http://www.nature.com/mi/journal/v4/n1/full/mi201043a.html
In addressing this possibility experimentally, we were drawn to recent studies indicating that probiotic treatment through the gastrointestinal mucosa can attenuate systemic as well as local immunoinflammatory functions (reviewed in Borchers et al.8). The concepts underpinning this emerging area of therapeutics draw on the principles of the common mucosal immune system, notably that lymphoid cells “programmed” in the gut subsequently home to other mucosal sites, to thus modulate local disease.9

Attempts to exploit this concept therapeutically are still in their infancy, nonetheless there is a growing list of reports suggesting significant probiotic effects on gastrointestinal10 and systemic diseases including eczema,11, 12 allergy,13 infection,14 and asthma.15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Of direct relevance to this study are data showing probiotic-induced increases in murine splenic Treg levels and ensuing resistance to development of AHR.17, 18, 19, 20 In addition, other studies have shown that bacterial agents can induce Treg in vitro17, 20, 21 and in vivo can confer protection against allergic airways inflammation.22

[arendt]

1. WTF? This is getting unrecced? Nature magazine is first rate science. n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Why yes, yes it is. n/t