Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects over 2.5 million Canadians, placing a significant burden on families and the Canadian health care system. Asthma attacks or exacerbations are periods of progressively worsening symptoms due to swelling and closure of the airways, leading to frightening feelings of suffocation, hospitalization, and even death. Inhaling allergens and/or air pollution from various sources such as forest fires or automobile exhaust often provokes these attacks. Asthmatics cope with their symptoms using medications broadly called inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). These medications act on cells lining the lungs by turning on and off sets of genes that suppress airway inflammation and asthma symptoms. Recent studies have suggested that increased air pollution may lead to increased ICS use, and our lab's research has shown that air pollution interrupts ICS's actions on human lung cells grown on petri dishes. To further examine this complex interaction, we need to investigate the relationship between air pollution and ICS in a rigorous controlled human clinical study. In our study, research volunteers will be exposed for two hours to filtered air or air pollution at a level experienced in major cities such as Beijing before taking a placebo or ICS. Every volunteer will experience each combination in a random order. Cells collected directly from the volunteers' airways will be examined using state of the art gene sequencing techniques to determine which genes have turned on and off. This will enable me to investigate how increased air pollution influences ICS effectiveness in asthmatic patients. This is significant because it can immediately be used to improve treatment guidelines and inform educational policies aimed at preventing asthma attacks. Considering that 92% of the world's population live in areas exceeding WHO air pollution guidelines, findings from our research have the potential to impact millions of lives in Canada and abroad.