Asthma has become a common chronic respiratory disease worldwide and its prevalence is predicted to continue increasing in the next decade, particularly in developing countries. A key component in asthma therapy is to alleviate the excessive bronchial airway narrowing ultimately due to airway smooth muscle contraction, which is often facilitated by a smooth muscle relaxant, such as the β2-adren...

BACKGROUND Lymphocytes of normal elderly subjects and young asthmatics display dysfunctional beta-adrenoceptors. If beta-adrenoceptor dysfunction were found in senescent airways, it might help explain the pathogenesis of late onset asthma. METHODS The bronchodilatory effects of albuterol after methacholine-provoked bronchoconstriction were compared in 17 healthy young (age 20 to 36 years) and...

Tiotropium is a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) that exerts its bronchodilatory effect by blocking endogenous acetylcholine receptors in the airways. Its safety and efficacy are well established for the treatment of COPD, and it is now being recognized for its role in improving lung function and control in asthma. This review discusses the evolving role of tiotropium delivered by the R...

Introduction The prevalence of bronchial asthma, which is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airway, is increasing worldwide. Although inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) play a central role in the treatment of asthma, they cannot achieve good control for all asthmatics and medications such as leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) with bronchodilatory and anti-inflammatory effects often serve ...

Protease-activated receptors (PARs) are widely distributed in human airways, and recent evidence indicates a role for PARs in the pathophysiology of inflammatory airway disease. To further investigate the role of PARs in airway disease, we determined the expression and function of PARs in a murine model of respiratory tract viral infection. PAR-1, PAR-2, PAR-3, and PAR-4 mRNA and protein were e...

backgrounds: all of long-acting β2-agonists are beneficial in maintenance treatment of asthma but their use in relieving acute asthma attacks is not well known. the aim of this study was to compare rapid bronchodilatory effects of salmeterol and formoterol in patient with moderate to severe asthma. methods: it was a randomized, double blind, cross-over study on 60 patients with moderate to seve...

in the previous studies the relaxant, anti-cholinergic (functional antagonism) and anti-histaminic effects of nigella sativa have been demonstrated on guinea pig tracheal chains. to elucidate the main substance responsible for the relaxant effect of this plant, the effect of thymoquinone, one of the main constituent of nigella sativa was examined in this study. the bronchodilatory effects of th...

Studies on isolated tracheal airway smooth muscle (ASM) strips have shown that length/force fluctuations, similar to those likely occurring during breathing, will mitigate ASM contractility. These studies conjecture that, solely by reducing length oscillations on a healthy, intact airway, one can create airway hyperresponsiveness, but this has never been explicitly tested. The intact airway has...

Despite evidence that stressful experience can exacerbate the symptoms of asthma, little is known about the biological mechanisms through which this occurs. This study examined whether life stress reduces expression of the genes coding for the glucocorticoid receptor and the 2-adrenergic receptor. A total of 77 children were enrolled in the study (59% male; mean age, 13.5 years). Thirty-nine of...