Grant: Team Grant: Health Challenges in Chronic Inflammation Initiative (LOI)

Approximately 2.8 million Canadians suffer from either asthma or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although these may seem like completely different diseases, we believe that they actually have a lot in common. Both diseases involve abnormal responses of the epithelial cells that line the airway or gut wall to environmental stimuli and both mucosal surfaces get inflamed. In addition, there is evidence for alterations of lung function and lung inflammation in quite a few patients with IBD. Steroid drugs are also the main treatment used for both diseases. Until now, asthma and IBD have been studied completely separately but we believe that by directly comparing the two we will learn new information that will improve treatment of both diseases. We will do this using human cells in culture, experimental models in animals, and by direct studies with patients. We will directly compare the responses of gut and airway cells to viruses and bacteria that can trigger attacks of asthma and IBD to see if we can understand common defense mechanisms in both organs that may be key to improving treatments. We will use animal models to see if inducing asthma in animals alters the way they develop IBD, or if inducing IBD changes the way the lung responds to allergens that trigger asthma attacks. In both cell cultures and animal models, we will also test combinations of existing medicines that we think may will improve how effectively steroids control inflammation and may let us use less steroids. Finally, we will test the same combinations of medicines in patients with asthma or IBD to see if they improve disease control. If they do, they will reduce the amounts of steroids needed for patients, avoid the use of expensive biological drugs and improve the care of patients. They will also save resources and money for the health care system. We believe this brand new approach to comparing asthma and IBD will benefit patients with both diseases.