Life Extension Daily News: "THE announcement that British scientists have identified a deficiency in the lining of the lungs of people with asthma that renders them particularly susceptible to coughs and colds could prove a turning point in the ongoing battle against a disease which now affects more than five million people in the UK. It's a major breakthrough that is likely to result in the first real new treatments for 30 years, and possibly, one day, even a vaccine.

Inflammation of the delicate lining of the lungs following exposure to inhaled allergens, pollutants and viruses is the primary cause of asthma, with the resulting congestion and narrowing of the airways causing the cardinal symptoms of cough, wheeze and shortness of breath.

Up until now, treatment, for all but the mildest cases, has centred on the use of anti-inflammatory ' preventers' such as steroid inhalers, but we have reached the end of the line in terms of their development. While today's anti-inflammatories are significant advances on their forbears developed in the Sixties and Seventies, they are not that much more effective, and around half of all people's asthma in the UK today remains poorly controlled. "