Patients with asthma have chronic lung inflammation that results in sporadic narrowing of the airways and difficulty breathing. Symptoms and severity are variable among individuals; however, the cells and inflammatory factors that trigger asthmatic events have been fairly well characterized and are similar regardless of the asthma-inducing stimuli. In this issue of JCI Insight, investigators led by Karin Reif of KARBio LLC and Cary Austin of Genentech Inc. identified human CRTh2 (hCRTh2), a protein expressed on several immune cell populations that are implicated in asthma, as a possible therapeutic target. The research team generated antibodies targeting hCRTh2, and demonstrated that anti-CRTh2 depletes hCRTh2-positive cells from the lungs and lymphoid organs of asthmatic mice that were engineered to express the human form of CRTh2. Importantly, antibody treatment reduced production of asthma-associated cytokines and inflammation in these mice. The results of this study support further exploration of CRTh2 as a therapeutic target for asthma.
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TITLE:
Depletion of major pathogenic cells in asthma by targeting CRTh2
AUTHOR CONTACT
Karin Reif
KARBio, LLC
E-mail: KARBioSF@gmail.com.
Cary Austin
Genentech Inc
E-mail: austin.cary@gene.com.
View this article at: http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/86689?key=ed911dff0ca303c7b162
JCI Insight is the newest publication from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a nonprofit honor organization of physician-scientists. JCI Insight is dedicated to publishing a range of translational biomedical research with an emphasis on rigorous experimental methods and data reporting. All articles published in JCI Insight are freely available at the time of publication. For more information about JCI Insight and all of the latest articles go to http://www.insight.jci.org.
Journal
JCI Insight