• Question: why is it that some asthma treatments work on some people better than others and how does the lung machinery work?

    Asked by apigailbeavis to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 16 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by lizziegee.
    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 16 Mar 2013:

      A really good question. I guess the main thing is that asthma isn’t one disease, but quite a few different diseases that have the same outcome! http://ezinearticles.com/?9-Different-Types-of-Asthma—You-Should-Be-Aware-Before-it-is-Too-Late&id=1805294

      Most of it is allergic asthma, and even with these patients, some of them don’t respond. Unfortunately asthma is a really complex disease that we haven’t pinned down yet, so we don’t know everything about it.

      I would assume that people who don’t respond are themselves different to the other asthma sufferers, I guess what I’m saying is that they would have a specific mutation (a change in their blueprint) which means that the disease is different.

      As for the lung machinery – what I’m looking at is how a molecule in the lung cell can turn genes on and off. It’s like how your eyes might be blue because that gene is turned on, but your skin isn’t blue, even though they could be if they turned that gene on!

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