̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - asthma

Routine asthma test more reliable in the morning and has seasonal effects

cjb250 — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:01:06 +0000

Using real world data from 1,600 patients, available through a database created for speeding up research and innovation, the team also found that its reliability differs significantly in winter compared to autumn.

Asthma is a common lung condition that can cause wheezing and shortness of breath, occasionally severe. Around 6.5% of people over six years old in the UK are affected by the condition. Treatments include the use of inhalers or nebulisers to carry medication into the lungs.

̽��ֱ��majority of asthma attacks occur at nighttime or early in the morning. Although this may in part be due to cooler nighttime air and exposure to dust mites and allergens, it also suggests that circadian rhythms – our ‘body clocks’ – likely play a role.

Researchers at the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute, a collaboration between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RPH), wanted to explore whether these circadian rhythms may also have an impact on our ability to diagnose asthma, using routinely performed clinical testing.

Typically, people with suspected asthma will be offered a spirometry test, which involves taking a deep breath in, then breathing out hard and fast for as long as possible into a tube to assess lung function. They will then be administered the drug salbutamol via an inhaler or nebuliser, and shortly afterwards retake the spirometry test.

Salbutamol works by opening up the airways, so a positive test result – that is, a difference in readings between the initial and follow-up spirometry tests – means that the airways must have been narrower or obstructed to begin with, suggesting that the patient could have asthma.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) has recently set up the Electronic Patient Record Research and Innovation (ERIN) database so that researchers can access patient data in a secure environment to help in their research and speed up improvements in patient care.

Using this resource, the Cambridge team analysed data from 1,600 patients referred to CUH between 2016 and 2023, adjusted for factors such as age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking history, and the severity of the initial impairment in lung function.

In findings published today in Thorax, the researchers found that starting at 8.30am, with every hour that passed during the working day, the chances of a positive response to the test – in other words, the patient’s lungs responding to treatment, suggesting that they could have asthma – decreased by 8%.

Dr Ben Knox-Brown, Lead Research Respiratory Physiologist at RPH, said: “Given what we know about how the risk of an asthma attack changes between night and day, we expected to find a difference in how people responded to the lung function test, but even so, we were surprised by the size of the effect.

“This has potentially important implications. Doing the test in the morning would give a more reliable representation of a patient's response to the medication than doing it in the afternoon, which is important when confirming a diagnosis such as asthma.”

̽��ֱ��researchers also discovered that individuals were 33% less likely to have a positive result if tested during autumn when compared to those tested during winter.

Dr Akhilesh Jha, a Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at CUH, said that there may be a combination of factors behind this difference.

“Our bodies have natural rhythms – our body clocks,” Jha said. “Throughout the day, the levels of different hormones in our bodies go up and down and our immune systems perform differently, for example. Any of these factors might affect how people respond to the lung function test.

“ ̽��ֱ��idea that the time of day, or the season of the year, affects our health and how we respond to treatments is something we’re seeing increasing evidence of. We know, for example, that people respond differently to vaccinations depending on whether they’re administered in the morning or afternoon. ̽��ֱ��findings of our study further support this idea and may need to be taken into account when interpreting the results of these commonly performed tests.”

Reference
Knox-Brown, B et al. ̽��ֱ��effect of time of day and seasonal variation on bronchodilator responsiveness: ̽��ֱ��SPIRO-TIMETRY study. Thorax; 12 March 2025; DOI: 10.1136/thorax-2024-222773

A lung function test used to help diagnose asthma works better in the morning, becoming less reliable throughout the day, Cambridge researchers have found.

Throughout the day, the levels of different hormones in our bodies go up and down and our immune systems perform differently. Any of these factors might affect how people respond to the lung function test

Akhilesh Jha

Koldunov (Getty Images)

Man testing breathing function by spirometry - stock photo

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Identification of ‘violent’ processes that cause wheezing could lead to better diagnosis and treatment for lung disease

sc604 — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:01:31 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, used modelling and high-speed video techniques to show what causes wheezing and how to predict it. Their results could be used as the basis of a cheaper and faster diagnostic for lung disease that requires just a stethoscope and a microphone.

Improved understanding of the physical mechanism responsible for generating wheezing sounds could provide a better causal link between symptoms and disease, and help improve diagnosis and treatment. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

At some point, most of us have experienced wheezing, a high-pitched whistling sound made while breathing. For most people, the phenomenon is temporary and usually the result a cold or mild allergic reaction. However, regular or chronic wheezing is often a symptom of more serious conditions, such as asthma, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or certain cancers.

“Because wheezing makes it harder to breathe, it puts an enormous amount of pressure on the lungs,” said first author Dr Alastair Gregory from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “ ̽��ֱ��sounds associated with wheezing have been used to make diagnoses for centuries, but the physical mechanisms responsible for the onset of wheezing are poorly understood, and there is no model for predicting when wheezing will occur.”

Co-author Dr Anurag Agarwal, Head of the Acoustics lab in the Department of Engineering, said he first got the idea to study wheezing after a family vacation several years ago. “I started wheezing the first night we were there, which had never happened to me before,” he said. “And as an engineer who studies acoustics, my first thought was how cool it was that my body was making these noises. After a few days however, I was having real trouble breathing, which made the novelty wear off pretty quickly.”

Agarwal’s wheezing was likely caused by a dust mite allergy, which was easily treated with over-the-counter antihistamines. However, after speaking with a neighbour who is also a specialist in respiratory medicine, he learned that even though it is a common occurrence, the physical mechanisms that cause wheezing are somewhat mysterious.

“Since wheezing is associated with so many conditions, it is difficult to be sure of what is wrong with a patient just based on the wheeze, so we’re working on understanding how wheezing sounds are produced so that diagnoses can be more specific,” said Agarwal.

̽��ֱ��airways of the lung are a branching network of flexible tubes, called bronchioles, that gradually get shorter and narrower as they get deeper into the lung.

In order to mimic this setup in the lab, the researchers modified a piece of equipment called a Starling resistor, in which airflow is driven through thin elastic tubes of various lengths and thicknesses.

Co-author and computer vision specialist Professor Joan Lasenby developed a multi-camera stereoscopy technique to film the air being forced through the tubes at different degrees of tension, in order to observe the physical mechanisms that cause wheezing.

“It surprised us just how violent the mechanism of wheezing is,” said Gregory, who is also a Junior Research Fellow at Magdalene College. “We found that there are two conditions for wheezing to occur: the first is that the pressure on the tubes is such that one or more of the bronchioles nearly collapses, and the second is that air is forced though the collapsed airway with enough force to drive oscillations.”

Once these conditions are met, the oscillations grow and are sustained by a flutter mechanism in which waves travelling from front to back have the same frequency as the opening and closing of the tube. “A similar phenomenon has been seen in aircraft wings when they fail, or in bridges when they collapse,” said Agarwal. “When up and down vibrations are at the same frequency as clockwise and anticlockwise twisting vibrations, we get flutter that causes the structure to collapse. ̽��ֱ��same process is at work inside the respiratory system.”

Using these observations, the researchers developed a ‘tube law’ in order to predict when this potentially damaging oscillation might occur, depending on the tube’s material properties, geometry and the amount of tension.

“We then use this law to build a model that can predict the onset of wheezing and could even be the basis of a cheaper and faster diagnostic for lung disease,” said Gregory. “Instead of expensive and time-consuming methods such as x-rays or MRI, we wouldn’t need anything more than a microphone and a stethoscope.”

A diagnostic based on this method would work by using a microphone – early tests were done using the in-built microphone on a normal smartphone – to record the frequency of the wheezing sound and use this to identify which bronchiole is near collapse, and whether the airways are unusually stiff or flexible in order to target treatment. ̽��ֱ��researchers hope that by finding changes in material properties from wheezing, and locations that wheezes come from, the additional information will make it easier to distinguish between different conditions, although further work in this area is still needed.

Reference:.
A. L. Gregory, A. Agarwal and J. Lasenby. ‘An Experimental Investigation to Model Wheezing in Lungs.’ Royal Society Open Science (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201951

A team of engineers has identified the ‘violent’ physical processes at work inside the lungs which cause wheezing, a condition that affects up to a quarter of the world’s population.

Since wheezing is associated with so many conditions, it is difficult to be sure of what is wrong with a patient just based on the wheeze

Anurag Agarwal

Hey Paul Studios

Dimensional Lungs

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Switching to ‘green’ inhalers could reduce carbon emissions and cut costs, study suggests

cjb250 — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 00:01:17 +0000

Metered-dose inhalers contain liquefied, compressed gases that act as a propellant to atomise the drug being delivered and to pump it out to the user. Originally chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), were used as the propellant but these potent greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances are now banned. Instead they have been replaced by hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) propellants.

While HFAs are not damaging to the ozone layer, they are still potent greenhouse gases, and currently metered-dose inhalers contribute an estimated 3.9% of the carbon footprint of the National Health Service in the UK. In 2017, around 50 million inhalers were prescribed in England, of which seven out of ten were metered-dose inhalers, compared to only one in ten in Sweden.

There have been calls to switch away from HFA inhalers because of their environmental impact. Effective alternatives are already available, such as dry powder inhalers and aqueous mist inhalers. Switching to inhalers with a lower carbon footprint is a key part of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit’s strategy. However, a significant barrier to moving to alternative inhalers is the higher “up-front” price of some dry powder inhalers.

In a study published today in BMJ Open, a team of researchers studied NHS prescription data from England in 2017 and collated carbon footprint data on inhalers commonly used in England in order to compare the financial and environmental costs of different inhalers.

Information on the amount of HFA propellant in metered-dose inhalers is not publicly available, so the researchers estimated the contents of the inhalers by reviewing publications, patents, and inhaler performance studies for information on weights of empty and full inhalers. They calculated the carbon footprint by multiplying the estimated weight of HFA propellant by its global warming potential (a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere over a specific time, relative to carbon dioxide).

̽��ֱ��team found that the carbon footprints of metered-dose inhalers were between 10-37 times those of dry powder inhalers. At 2017 prescription levels, replacing one in ten metered-dose inhalers in England with the cheapest equivalent dry powder inhalers could lead to a reduction in drug costs of £8.2million annually and would reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 58kilotonnes, roughly the same as would arise from 180,000 return car journeys from London to Edinburgh.*

If an individual was able to replace their metered-dose inhalers with dry powder inhalers, over the course of a year this would save the equivalent of between 150 and 400kg of CO2 , which is similar to many actions that environmentally-concerned individuals are taking at home already such as installing wall insulation at home, recycling, or reducing meat consumption.

“Any move towards ‘greener’ inhalers would need to ensure that replacements were cost effective,” said Dr Alexander Wilkinson, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine from East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. “By switching to less expensive brands, we’ve shown that it would still be possible to make a positive impact on carbon emissions while at the same time reducing drug costs.

“It’s important to stress that patients shouldn’t stop using their usual treatments to reduce their carbon footprint. Instead we recommend patients review their condition and treatment at least annually with their healthcare professional and at this point discuss whether a more environmentally-friendly inhaler is available and appropriate in their situation.”

Other actions people can take to reduce the carbon footprint of their inhalers include: making sure they are using their inhaler correctly, as errors in technique are common; returning used inhalers to pharmacies for proper disposal as metered dose inhalers have some propellant left in them when they are finished; and, if their inhaler doesn’t have a dose counter, making sure they know how many doses it contains to avoid running out, or throwing away half-full inhalers.

“Climate change is a huge and present threat to health that will disproportionately impact the poorest and most vulnerable on the planet, including people with pre-existing lung disease,” said Dr James Smith, Consultant in Public Health from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“Our study shows that switching to inhalers which are better for the environment could help individuals, and the NHS as a whole, reduce their impact on the climate significantly. This is an important step towards creating a zero carbon healthcare system fit for the 21st century.”

Reference
Wilkinson, AJK et al. ̽��ֱ��costs of switching to low global-warming potential inhalers. An economic and carbon footprint analysis of NHS prescription data in England. BMJ Open; 30 Oct 2019; DOI: bmjopen-2018-028763

*Emissions calculation

Emissions for average car (tailpipe emissions + well-to-tank emissions per mile travelled) = 0.285kgCO2e + 0.073kgCO2e per mile = 0.358 kgCO2e per mile
kg saved by replacing 1/10 of inhalers = 58,000,000
Equivalent no. of miles in average car = 58,000,000/0.358=162,011,170
London to Edinburgh = 450 miles
No. of return journeys = 162,011,170/(2x450)=180,012

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge
̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new environment and climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the ̽��ֱ��’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our biosphere.

Many current inhalers for conditions such as asthma contain propellants that are potent greenhouse gases. A study from researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has found that switching to alternative, greener inhalers would not only result in large carbon savings, but could be achieved alongside reduced drug costs by using less expensive brands.

Our study shows that switching to inhalers which are better for the environment could help individuals, and the NHS as a whole, reduce their impact on the climate significantly. This is an important step towards creating a zero carbon healthcare system fit for the 21st century

James Smith

coltsfan

Inhaler

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Breathing new life into asthma treatment

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 17:57:59 +0000

I don’t think I will ever forget the moment I sat at the bedside of a six-year-old patient and watched the consultant hand over a 13-year-old student’s design to help with the patient’s asthma treatment. It has been the culmination of a long journey that started eight years ago with the belief that children can solve real world problems as part of the mainstream Design and Technology curriculum.

Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT) is an initiative that puts authentic challenges like this at the heart of the learning experience. Asthma treatment is the epitome of such a challenge. With 5.4 million people in the UK with the condition, the NHS spends about £1 Billion on treatment, and yet 1,468 people died from asthma in 2015. Tragically, it is believed that 90% of these deaths involve preventable factors and similarly 75% of A&E admission are thought to be avoidable.

We set the challenge in schools for students to design a packaging solution that will help co-ordinate the initial treatment for young asthma patients, to put the patient and their carers on the right path to controlling what is typically a long-term condition. A recent survey highlighted that over 80% of people, of all ages, feel that their asthma is not under control. Crucially we wanted students to address the anxiety that a child feels the first time a spacer mask is placed on their face. Students watched a video of a real instance of this, where the child recoils backwards each time the mask is placed over their mouth.

This is a complex, messy problem requiring solutions that are not only effective but cheap, simple to use and scalable. When I first saw the monkey mask design, where the child becomes a monkey and the inhaler and spacer becomes a banana to feed to it, I knew we had something special. It is so simple, so elegant as a design solution, and gets to the very heart of the child’s initial anxiety. Changing that moment from fear to fun for the patient as well as other family members makes it a better experience for all.

Alongside this we have worked with students to develop posters that remind patients to always use their spacer. In addition, we have developed a simple traffic light system explaining the narrowing of airways in the lungs and why and how it can be controlled. ̽��ֱ��credit card-sized printout can be easily clipped to a healthcare professional’s ID badge so it is always to hand.

This is a significant moment in our journey as engineers and educators, and we are so grateful for all the people that have partnered with us on this journey. ̽��ֱ��list of names would be too long, but I do want to mention the organisations that have walked the journey with us. ̽��ֱ��Healthy London Partnership, Children and Young People’s programme (a collaboration of the health and social care system across London), whose passion and skill around asthma has been an inspiration. On the packaging side the British Printing Industry Federation (BPiF) and ̽��ֱ��Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) who have guided us in the realities of packaging design and production; DS Smith who turned around amazing designs in such short timescales; Peter Brett Associates who believed in the project when it was just an idea; and last, but by no means least, the teachers and students who brought it to life in the classroom.

This was perfectly timed to fit with the Healthy London Partnership #AskAbout Asthma campaign and our pledge is to run the ‘Unpacking Asthma’ challenge in schools again in this academic year. We are confident that students will come up with more ideas that can help with this vital work.

It’s hard not to sound corny, but Churchill’s words come to mind for the vision we had for DOT eight years ago, “now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”. We hope that this work will go on to play a part in transforming asthma care and help us towards our goal of equipping future generations to be creative problem solvers. In other words, for young people to design a better tomorrow.

Ian Hosking from Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre is co-founder and co-leader of Designing Our Tomorrow, a collaboration between the Department of Engineering and the Faculty of Education which brings real-world problems into classroom design and technology sessions. Here, he describes the culmination of a year-long project in which secondary school students designed packaging solutions for the treatment of childhood asthma.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Student-led designs could help prevent childhood asthma deaths

sc604 — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 07:31:51 +0000

̽��ֱ��programme, called Designing Our Tomorrow, was founded by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and brings real-world problems into classroom design and technology sessions in secondary schools, and encouraging the next generation of UK designers and engineers.

As part of their classroom curriculum, students from different secondary schools have been learning about what makes an effective and useful design. Their goal was to design a type of packaging which would contain everything a young child with asthma would need, whether they’re at home, at school or elsewhere; and one which would help reduce anxiety of children with asthma by using child-friendly design themes. “In other words, we want to make it fun,” said Ian Hosking of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, who co-leads the Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT) programme, in collaboration with the Faculty of Education. “We want to re-frame what education can be – projects like these start to form a broader evidence base of what’s possible.”

Five of the best designs were presented by students from Wimbledon High School GDST at the British Paediatric Respiratory Society conference last Friday (30 June) in Cambridge.

Students were not merely designing packaging but an experience. Themes included a monkey character where the inhaler and spacer become a banana that the child can ‘feed’ the monkey with and then copy themselves. Other themes include a pack shaped like a cat where the inhalers become mice that are stored in a smaller box shaped like a wedge of cheese; and a folding pack that can hang on a door for easy access at home but can be quickly zipped up and put in a bag to take out.

“Seeing how people were scared of asthma…this affects and could benefit a lot of people. ̽��ֱ��child wanted it to be fun, the gran wanted emergency instructions, the parents wanted it to be compact and small and the nurse wanted it to be organised – so we took all of that and designed our packs,” said Charlotte, aged 11 from Wimbledon High.

Several of the designs have been made into initial corrugated cardboard prototypes by UK packaging company DS Smith, with the aim of piloting them in partnership with the NHS in London through the Healthy London Partnership.

“It has been great doing something which is able to change and improve children’s lives and help them get better,” said Sascha, aged 12 from Wimbledon High, one of the students who presented her design at the conference. “I am so happy and glad that they have decided to take mine to the next stage and it could appear in people’s homes.”

Asthma affects one in 11 children in the UK. On average, there are three children with asthma in every classroom in the UK, and a child is admitted to hospital every 20 minutes due to an asthma attack.

This DOT project has focused specifically on asthma in children under six years of age. It addresses the anxiety that a child feels in the early stages of treatment and the co-ordination of the equipment and their instructions to help ensure compliance with their treatment plan.

“DOT is a fascinating project which aims to bring real-world problems into classroom design and technology sessions in secondary schools,” said Sara Nelson from the Healthy London Partnership. “It’s one of the more rewarding pieces of work that I have had the pleasure of being involved in during the last year, the one I have learned the most from, and it involved collaborating with an unusual partner for the NHS.”

Each of the students was given all of the tools which a child with asthma or their carer would need to manage their condition, including inhalers, spacers, and emergency instructions. Through a set of classroom lessons, the students’ way of thinking was developed in order to help them understand how to be creative by breaking fixation through the use of stimulus.

Fixation is a common problem in design – for example, if you’re trying to design a new type of chair and all you’re shown are other chairs, you’ll just end up designing a variant of what already exists. “If I want to design a new chair, the last thing I should look at is a chair,” said Bill Nicholl from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, who co-leads the DOT programme.

“Children and young people are terribly creative, and the NHS should involve them more in co-designing what we do,” said Nelson. “We should not be afraid to put our heads above the parapet and should look outside the NHS to what partnerships might be out there to help us solve some of our tricky problems – I know that we can learn an awful lot from engineers.”

̽��ֱ��students from Wimbledon High also gained valuable industry experience working with DS Smith, who will help refine the students’ concepts into something that can be manufactured in large volumes. “By working with industry, it takes the project beyond a competition to something that can make a difference to patients and help prevent avoidable asthma deaths in children,” said Hosking.

“This project has shown yet again the potential of young people and their ability to engage with, and ultimately solve, complex design problems. We underestimate their creativity at our peril. Solving real problems like this should be at the heart of all young people’s educational experiences,” said Nicholl.

Wimbledon High Head of Design & Technology Marcia Phillip has been deeply involved in the project: “It puts authentic challenges and engineering practice at the heart of the learning experience and this appealed to me, particularly working in a girls’ school. We know there is a shortage of engineers in the UK – particularly women – and I thought we should get our girls inspired from an early age. ̽��ֱ��girls have been highly engaged and excited – after all, they are playing a part in the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s research and their ideas will potentially be implemented within the NHS.”

“I feel like I am doing something for a purpose and it makes me feel happy that I am helping people,” said Charlotte. “I feel accomplished and proud of what I have done because it was a long process but it was all worth it.”

DOT is funded in part by engineering design consultants Peter Brett Associates and ARM Ltd.

Solutions designed by secondary school students as part of an innovative classroom design and technology programme could help reduce the number of unnecessary deaths from childhood asthma.

I feel like I am doing something for a purpose and it makes me feel happy that I am helping people.

Charlotte, aged 11

Lloyd Mann

Students from Wimbledon High School at the British Paediatric Respiratory Society conference

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Moonlighting molecules: finding new uses for old enzymes

cjb250 — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 12:30:17 +0000

Enzymes are biological catalysts – molecules that speed up chemical reactions within living materials. Many enzymes are already well characterised and their functions fairly well understood. For example, the enzyme known as MMP8 is present in the connective tissue of most mammals, where it breaks the chemical bonds found in collagen.

In pre-clinical research published in the journal Chemistry & Biology, Dr Florian Hollfelder from the Department of Biochemistry at Cambridge and Dr Lutz Jermutus,Senior Director, Research and Development at MedImmune, led a study to map a list of human enzymes (proteases) against potential protein drug targets.

Using automation technology at MedImmune, the team then tested each of the enzymes against each target protein in turn, allowing them to identify a significant number of so-far unknown interactions.

Of particular interest was how MMP8 was able to disable a molecule known as IL-13, which is known to play an important role in several inflammatory diseases such as asthma and dermatitis. ̽��ֱ��researchers believe this may be a previously-unknown way in which the body regulates the action of IL-13, preventing these diseases in the majority of individuals. If so, it could provide an interesting target for new drugs against these common diseases.

“MMP8 is well-known to biochemists and we all thought we understood its function, but it’s clear that this – and probably many other enzymes – ‘moonlight’ and have several functions within the body,” explains Dr Hollfelder. “Because the enzyme already had a ‘name’ and a function, nobody thought to see if it had a promiscuous side.”

Designing new enzymes has proven an extremely difficult technical challenge, hence the drive to find new uses for previously ‘understood’ enzymes. By focusing on human proteases, rather than bacterial proteases – which are actually easier to source – the researchers are confident that their research will be far more applicable to drug discovery.

“Our approach is new: we ‘recycle’ known enzymes and ask whether they can do other things than the ones they are known for,” adds Dr Jermutus. “In fact, we believe we have found other enzymes that could be similarly deployed against other disease-causing proteins, and this approach, if expanded, could provide further leads for new drugs.”

Commenting on the benefits of the collaboration with industry, Dr Hollfelder adds: “Without MedImmune, our work would have stopped after seeing and characterising the interactions. ̽��ֱ��additional extension to cell and mouse models would have been inconceivable in my basic science group.”

Reference
Urbach, C et al. Combinatorial Screening Identifies Novel Promiscuous Matrix Metalloproteinase Activities that Lead to Inhibition of the Therapeutic Target IL-13. Chemistry & Biology; 19 Nov 2015

A collaboration between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, has led researchers to identify a potentially significant new application for a well-known human enzyme, which may have implications for treating respiratory diseases such as asthma.

MMP8 is well-known to biochemists and we all thought we understood its function, but it’s clear that this – and probably many other enzymes – ‘moonlight’ and have several functions within the body

Florian Hollfelder

Emw

Structure of the MMP8 protein. Based on PyMOL rendering of PDB 1a85

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