New Asthma Research Opposes Current Drug Treatment, Says UH ProfThe article is about a professor’s theory and research to purport that perhaps “beta-2 adrenoreceptor antagonist drugs (or beta blockers) ultimately might be a safer, more effective strategy for long-term asthma management than the currently used beta-2 adrenoreceptor agonists.” The theory is based on studies that show a mouse that lacks a key gene that produces the beta-2 adrenoreceptors, and the mouse also happens have an “absence of asthma-like symptoms.”This research is important especially now, because the FDA is considering new approaches that deal with the long term control medicines that asthma patients are currently using. The main purpose of these long term drugs is to reduce inflammation of the airways. The reason the FDA is currently thinking about altering the approach of these long term control methods is because “several studies have shown chronic use of the beta-2 agonists (or stimulants) can negatively affect asthma control and airway hyperresponsiveness by desensitizing the beta-2 adrenoreceptor through regular stimulation.” Basically, the mouse is better off without the beta-2 receptor at all. The professor’s research shows fundamentally that “blocking…the receptor with antagonists, instead of stimulating it with agonists, reduces the asthma-like features of the mouse model."



http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136807.php