A new understanding of how the immune system is kept in check could lead to new ways of dealing with chronic lung diseases – bronchial asthma, COPD and others.
Recent results may open up avenues for research to repair damage caused by cells that overreact to infection.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have studied immune cells known as neutrophils, which fight bacteria and help induce inflammation, the normal biological response to wounds, or infection that results in redness and swelling. They found that when neutrophils lose a certain oxygen-sensitive protein, cells become overactive and overreact to infection in a harmful way.
Studies in mice have shown that by preventing cells from using sugar, this effect can be reversed.
Studying the effects of oxygen-sensitive proteins on immune cells is especially relevant for patients who often have low oxygen levels in the body and chronic pneumonia.
This finding may be useful in understanding the use of glucose by neutrophils in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.