RESEARCHERS FIND ASTHMA SUSCEPTIBILITY-GENE SITES.Byline: Malcolm Ritter rit·ter n. pl. ritter A knight. [German, from Middle High German riter, from Middle Dutch ridder, from r Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Researchers who trolled the human DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. for signs of asthma genes have found six spots where they might be hiding. Scientists already knew that several genes make people susceptible to asthma, which affects some 14.6 million Americans. Those genes team up with environmental triggers An environmental trigger is a factor caused (or aided) by the environment. An example of an environmental trigger would be a component of a human's drinking water which holds the possibility of activating (triggering) a change in a person's body. to bring on the disease. If susceptibility genes really are lurking in the areas identified, it will take maybe three to five years to find them, said Dr. William O.C.M. Cookson of John Radcliffe Hospital The John Radcliffe Hospital is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, UK. It is the main teaching hospital for Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University. As such, it is a well developed centre of medical research. in Oxford, England. There also are other asthma genes outside of the identified areas, he said. Once the susceptibility genes are identified, scientists may be able to find ways to identify people at risk and keep them from getting sick. Eventually, the genes may suggest new drugs for treatment. Cookson and colleagues presented their findings in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. It's the first published study that scanned virtually all the human DNA for asthma genes, said David G. Marsh, who studies the genetics of allergy and asthma at Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. in Baltimore. ``This is really a very important advance,'' Marsh said. Two of the six identified areas had been pointed out by prior studies. Cookson and colleagues studied 80 Australian families, tracking the inheritance of 269 genetic signposts from parents to children. The idea is to find signposts that are inherited along with a particular trait. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion