A team of University of Cincinnati researchers using genetically engineered mice has identified a gene that may lead to better treatments for asthma in people.

        The team, led by Dr. Anil Menon, an associate professor of molecular genetics at UC, has identified the gene for Aquaporin 5, a water channel found in certain cells of the lung and elsewhere in the body. Mutation of the Aquaporin 5 gene may help explain why people with asthma have hypersensitive airways, the researchers said.

CASES GROWTH

• In 1980, an estimated 6.7 million Americans had asthma.     • In 2000, an estimated 17 million Americans had asthma.     • By 2020, asthma cases could rise to 29 million, or 1 in 14 Americans.     Asthma deaths increased from 2,598 in 1979 to 5,667 in 1996. In 1996, 474,100 Americans were hospitalized for asthma.    Cost of asthma     • Estimates of asthma's direct costs range from $3.6 billion to $5.1 billion annually.     • Indirect asthma costs, including lost work days and lost earnings, are estimated at $2.5 billion.

        An estimated 17 million Americans suffer asthma attacks every year. While treatments for asthma have improved dramatically over the years, the number of people diagnosed with the breath-stealing condition has been rising and scientists have not been able to explain why.

        The UC researchers' findings are scheduled to be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a prestigious national science journal. Their study reports that Aquaporin 5 plays a role in controlling constriction of the bronchial tubes, which lead from the trachea to the lungs.

        Genetically engineered “knock-out” mice, which were bred so that they would not have the Aquaporin 5 gene, tended to have more severe bronchial constriction than normal mice when exposed to chemicals that trigger asthma attacks.

        The study also found that normal mice have Aquaporin 5 in several more types of cells than previously thought, including a second type of lung cell and cells lining the trachea and bronchial tubes.

        Having a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is a big achievement, but several other genes also have been linked to asthma. It remains too early to tell how important this finding will be, said Dr. Malcolm Blumenthal, director of the asthma and allergy program at the University of Minnesota and a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

        “It's always a problem going from a knock-out mouse to a human model,” Dr. Blumenthal said. “Eventually, I think we will find that a multitude of genes are involved with asthma. How this one stacks up against the others is yet to be defined.”

        The UC research team included Dr. Carissa Krane, now an assistant professor of biology at the University of Dayton, Dr. Jeffrey Whitsett, director of pulmonary biology and neonatology at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and several other scientists.

        “Together, the physiological and genetic findings suggest that mutations in the gene for Aquaporin 5 may contribute to the development of some forms of asthma,” Dr. Menon said.

        Dr. Krane said the mice findings are important because there are many genetic similarities between mice and humans.

        Discovering the gene is a first step, the researchers said. More study will be needed to confirm the genetic link in humans, and even more study will be needed to find medications that enhance or replace the function of that gene in human asthma patients.

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