About 15 years ago, global epidemiological studies revealed an interesting link between asthma and brain tumor. Accordingly, people with asthma had a lower risk of developing brain tumors. However, the cause of this connection has still not been fully discovered despite the intervening years.
A recent study by the Washington College of Medicine in the USA revealed that this connection does indeed exist, with reasons. In 2015, neurologists published a study stating that some children who are prone to tumors along brain pathways do not develop asthma compared to the general rate. New research on this work has shown that children’s tumors are driven by an interaction between the eye (optic) nerves and certain immune cells known as microglia and T cells.
Tests on asthmatic mice confirmed the result
Considering that asthma is usually a disease caused by T cells, neurologists began to look for the answer in these immune cells. To test the idea, the researchers modified the mice to be prone to optic nerve tumors. They then induced asthma in 4-6 week old mice. Mice with asthma trigger showed no evidence of brain tumor at 3 and 6 months. Mice without asthma, on the other hand, showed the expected tumor growth.
Although this research shows that asthma is effective against brain tumors, you certainly do not want to give asthma to anyone, as asthma is a disease that can cause death in itself. But scientists got new ideas with this result. One of them is to trick T cells into thinking they have asthma so they can circumvent the tumor formation without actually being asthmatic.
Scientists are also continuing to explore the relationship between eczema and early childhood infections.
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