Researchers in the United Kingdom from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University Medical Center Groningen, Open Targets, GSK, and collaborators have mapped the building blocks of the human lungs and airways, in both asthma patients and normal people. The research revealed the identity of each cell type, creating the first draft Human Cell Atlas of the lung. They also discovered an entirely new cell state that produces mucus in asthma patients.
The maps are reported in Nature Medicine. They reveal the differences between asthmatic and normal airways and identify how cells in the lung communicate with each other. Understanding the cells and their signals could lead to finding new drug targets for treating asthma.
While it is often manageable with medication, asthma can cause ongoing problems and there is a risk of severe, life-threatening asthma attacks. A better understanding of healthy lung cells and the differences with asthmatic lungs is required to develop new effective medications.
