Respiratory Research Bulletin R
help regulators assess the long-term safety of the flavours added to e-cigarette liquids.
New ways of treating asthma
While the added flavourings are regulated under the Food Standards Code, this only covers the safety of ingesting flavourings in food - not inhaling them.
esearch into respiratory health plays a vital role in improving understanding and treatment of respiratory disease. In this issue, we focus on a few exciting studies taking place here in New Zealand.
The Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ) is launching a new year-long study on how patients should vary use of their 2 in 1 inhaler, in response to changes in the severity of their asthma.
MRINZ’s asthma research has included three landmark studies which have shown that a 2 in1 inhaler, containing both the preventer and reliever medications budesonide and formoterol, is far more effective than the traditional single reliever inhaler. Based on this knowledge, the Foundation recommends the use of AIR therapy as the preferred reliever treatment across the range of asthma severities. The new ‘AIR Algorithm Study’ of 100 New Zealand volunteers looks deeper into the implementation of AIR therapy, across the spectrum of mild to severe asthma. Dr Pepa Bruce, MRINZ Clinical Research Fellow says, “This study is the first to explore how people can move between different steps of AIR therapy... It should provide an extremely important piece of the evidence needed to empower people with asthma to take greater control of their own treatment.”
Vitamin D to protect babies A new study by the University of Auckland suggests pregnant women should take Vitamin D supplements to boost their baby’s immunity before it’s born, and thereby decrease the risk from respiratory disease. Currently, over half of babies are born Vitamin D-deficient. Researchers looked at Vitamin D levels from just over 1,000 babies at birth, and examined their respiratory admissions in their first year of life. Those with a Vitamin D deficiency were twice as likely to end up in hospital with an acute respiratory infection. “The safest approach would be for all pregnant women to receive the supplement as they do in other countries,” said University professor Dr Cameron Grant.
Vaping research under way
Meanwhile, the University of Auckland’s Dr Kelly Burrowes has launched the most advanced study of its kind in the world, using human trials and state-of-the-art 3D computer models to get a precise look at what vaping does to our lungs. The study examines what goes into vaping aerosols, where the chemicals travel in the body, and what effect they have on everything from cells to whole organs.
University of Auckland’s pioneering COPD research Researchers at the University of Auckland are pioneering a new approach to the understanding of COPD, combining worldleading research into genetic modelling of the disease with mathematical modelling of lung structure-function. The research is being led by Professors Merryn Tawhai and Justin O’Sullivan, who are respectively the deputy directors of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and the Liggins Institute. They aim to develop an approach that will help identify how both disease and treatment affect people at a personalised level. “Everyone has their own genetic profile, and the way they respond to a disease such as COPD is different,” says Dr O’Sullivan. The disease will be investigated at myriad scales and levels, including DNA sequence, the cells involved, the way the cells interact in the tissue, the distribution of tissue damage within the lung, and more. “This will help us predict the trajectory of the disease at a very personalised and individualised level,” says Dr Tawhai.
Want to know more? We have collated leading peer-reviewed respiratory research from across the globe in our research portal. Check it out at asthmafoundation.org.nz/research
Otago University researchers have been funded to develop tests that will
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