Grant: Operating Grant

Asthma affects about 300M people globally and kills about 250,000 annually. In Canada, it affects 10-20% of us, is our primary cause of pediatric emergency visits, and it costs approximately $500-600M/yr. It is defined as reversible lung tightening and inflammation caused by exposure to things like pollen. Its main treatments are anti-inflammatory drugs and bronchodilators, but these just treat the symptoms and do not address it real causes: errant immune responses. Healthy people are equally exposed to these same pollens, etc, but instead mount tolerant immune responses. What we need are treatments to switch off the bad immune cells, replacing them with good cells, so that the affected individual responds to pollens, etc just like healthy people. We have discovered a cell within the body that can turn off bad immune responses, and we have shown that it works to reverse asthma in mice, and in the test tube with asthmatic people. We will determine how these cells work, if there are better cells, and if they will work with people. These treatments have the potential to provide a new generation treatment to cure asthma, not simply manage its symptoms.