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Airway Remodeling and Rhinovirus in Asthmatics
Sponsor: University of Calgary
Summary
Human rhinovirus is also called the "common cold virus" because it causes at least half of all of the common colds experienced each year. In patients with asthma, getting a rhinovirus infection can cause worsening of asthma symptoms. Although these symptoms are well known, researchers do not fully understand how the virus worsens these asthma symptoms, nor do they really know whether virus infection causes longer term structural changes (often referred to as airway remodeling) in the airways. This study plans to address and answer these questions. Doing so will provide the researchers with a better understanding of how to treat the worsening of asthma that are caused by human rhinovirus infections. The epithelial cell is the cell that lines the surface of your airways from your nose down to your lungs, and is also the cell type that gets infected by rhinovirus. At present, it is thought that the virus causes symptoms by changing epithelial cell biology in a way that causes airway inflammation. Some of these inflammatory molecules are also thought to cause scarring (remodeling) of the airways, which over time, may lead to a loss of lung function. In order to examine how the virus causes inflammation, many earlier studies have used experimental infection with the virus and have measured various markers of inflammation. The purpose of this study is to compare the levels of inflammatory and remodeling products in the airways of study participants with mild to moderate asthma and healthy, non-asthmatic subjects after infection with rhinovirus (the common cold virus).
Official title: Comparison of Airway Remodeling Mediators Following Experimental Human Rhinovirus Infection in Subjects With Mild to Moderate Asthma and Healthy, Non-asthmatic Control Subjects
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 65 Years
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
24
Start Date
2011-09-01
Completion Date
2024-12-31
Last Updated
2024-05-09
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
HRV-39
We will use a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-grade HRV-39 for our proposed study. Use of this GMP-grade HRV-39 viral stock ensures compliance with recent regulatory agency requirements which, beginning in 2001, have mandated that HRV preparations used for human inoculation be made under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). This proposed clinical study will allow us to address fundamental questions regarding the nature, kinetics and potential mechanisms of upper and lower airway inflammatory responses in subjects with well-controlled mild-moderate asthma and in healthy, non-asthmatic control subjects; a better understanding of these mechanisms may lead to new paradigms in the treatment of virally-induced airway remodeling and asthma exacerbations.
Locations (1)
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta, Canada