Grant: Operating Grant

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD - sometimes called smoker's lung) and asthma are two of the most common chronic diseases in the world. There are well over 1 million Canadians who are affected either by COPD or asthma. These two diseases can severely limit quality of life and represent a major burden on the health care system. Acute attacks of asthma and COPD can be life threatening and also account for the majority of the costs of treating these diseases. Human rhinoviruses (the common cold viruses) are now known to be among the most frequent triggers for acute attacks of asthma and COPD, but we do not fully understand how rhinoviruses cause such attacks. We do know that these viruses infect the epithelial cells that line the airways and cause the release of chemicals that can increase airway inflammation. Interestingly, these cells can also produce antiviral molecules that can fight the virus and could prevent attacks of asthma and COPD. As yet, we do not know which antiviral molecules are the most important. This grant aims to find out which antiviral molecules may be most important and how they may affect the virus. We are also trying to understand how cigarette smoke, the main cause of COPD, alters responses to rhinovirus infection. Patients with COPD, and asthmatic subjects who smoke, have worse outcomes to viral infections than non-smokers. If we can understand why this happens we may be better able to reduce rhinovirus-triggered attacks of asthma and COPD.