Authors: Corradi, Massimo; Zinelli, Chiara; Caffarelli, Carlo

Source: Inflammation & Allergy - Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets - Inflammation & Allergy), Volume 6, Number 3, September 2007 , pp. 150-159(10)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways which affects about 10-25% of children in Western countries. Monitoring of inflammation is considered an important tool in the diagnosis and follow-up of asthma, including assessment of severity and response to treatment. Bronchial biopsy specimens and bronchoalveolar lavage are reliable ways to assess airway inflammation. However, such invasive procedures are not feasible for repetitive measurements. In clinical practice, correlation of symptom scores and measurement of lung function with airway inflammation may be poor. Bronchial hyperresponsiveness to metacholine and induced sputum are time-consuming, difficult to perform before adolescence and can not be measured serially. Therefore, the greatest interest has recently been directed towards alternative approaches to determine markers involved in the inflammatory reaction. In childhood, such approaches must be noninvasive, reproducible and easy to perform. Furthermore, the inflammatory markers should accurately measure not only the degree of inflammation but also changes depending upon treatment or allergen exposure. Recently, the measurements of inflammatory markers in both exhaled breath and condensate have emerged as a possible non invasive method in the assessment of airway inflammation.

Keywords: Asthma; exhaled air; exhaled nitric oxide; exhaled temperature; exhaled condensate

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/187152807781696437

Publication date: 2007-09-01

More about this publication?

• Inflammation & Allergy - Drug Targets aims to cover all the latest and outstanding developments on the medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology, genomics and biochemistry of contemporary molecular targets involved in inflammation and allergy e.g. disease specific proteins, receptors, enzymes, genes. Each issue of the journal contains a series of timely in-depth reviews written by leaders in the field covering a range of current topics on drug targets involved in inflammation and allergy. As the discovery, identification, characterization and validation of novel human drug targets for anti-inflammation and allergy drug discovery continues to grow, this journal has become essential reading for all pharmaceutical scientists involved in drug discovery and development.

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