Asthma affects breathing and is very common. Pharmaceutical research has led to medicines that make breathing easier by enlarging the airways and reducing inflammation. Today, many patients lead normal lives with much less emergency treatment in hospital.
Disease: Asthma
Last update: June 2008
Intro
FAQ: What does the future hold?
A lot of research is aimed at improving ways of delivering existing medications into the lungs. The mechanism of asthma is very complex. This means that there are many possibilities for new therapies. Research is continuing into: preventing the accumulation in the lungs of the cells involved in inflammation, blocking the release of inflammatory substances from these cells, blocking the activity of the inflammatory substances, and developing new agents that open the airways.