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News

Nature Cure for Asthma

A study by Departments of Paediatrics and Chemical Pathology, together with researchers from Germany, Finland and mainland China reveals the benefits of farm exposure to children for asthma prevention and treatment. The team looked at blood samples of over 2,000 healthy and asthmatic European and Chinese children and discovered that asthmatic urban children had their levels of TNFAIP3, an anti-inflammatory protein halved compared with healthy subjects. Dust from farms, moreover, were shown to be capable of restoring the TNFAIP3 to healthy levels while decreasing proinflammatory gene expression. The latter suggests a therapeutic role for farm dust exposure to asthmatic conditions, which makes it a promising agent for illness management.