National Jewish Health Researchers Discover New Driver of Asthma-Related Inflammation


DENVER - Researchers at National Jewish Health have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that helps drive inflammation in allergic asthma, offering new insight into how the disease develops and potentially revealing new targets for future therapies.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, was led by Kapil Sirohi, PhD, a researcher with National Jewish Health, and focused on a protein called CBX7, which was previously believed to primarily suppress gene activity in the cell nucleus. Researchers were surprised to discover that CBX7 can also activate inflammatory genes and help sustain immune system signaling that contributes to asthma.

"We found that CBX7 plays a much larger role in immune cell function than previously understood," said senior author of the study Rafeul Alam, MD, PhD, and the division chief of Allergy & Clinical Immunology at National Jewish Health. "This protein helps immune cells produce inflammatory molecules that are central to allergic asthma."

The research team found that CBX7 becomes activated after exposure to allergens. Once activated, the protein uses a dual mechanism to drive inflammation: it functions as a chemical messenger in the cytoplasm while simultaneously relaying information to the nucleus, where it engages other transcription factors to promote cytokine production. Ultimately, this dual action supports a chain of molecular signals that keeps those immune cells activated.

Researchers found that reducing CBX7 activity in immune cells significantly decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines, key drivers of asthma-related inflammation. The findings demonstrated that CBX7 plays a critical role in helping immune cells generate and sustain inflammatory responses associated with allergic asthma.
The findings suggest that CBX7 serves as a critical control point for inflammation in certain immune cells involved in asthma.

"Current asthma treatments focus on controlling symptoms and inflammation after it occurs," said Dr. Alam. "Our findings identify a key molecular switch that helps initiate and sustain that inflammation, which could eventually lead to new therapeutic approaches."

The study also revealed that CBX7's inflammatory role appears to be specific to immune cells rather than airway lining cells, providing researchers with a more precise understanding of how asthma-related inflammation develops.

While additional research is needed before these findings can be translated into patient treatments, the discovery provides important new insight into the biological processes that contribute to asthma and allergic disease.
 

National Jewish Health is the leading respiratory hospital in the nation delivering excellence in multispecialty care and world class research. Founded in 1899 as a nonprofit hospital, National Jewish Health today is the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to groundbreaking medical research and treatment of children and adults with respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders. Patients and families come to National Jewish Health from around the world to receive cutting-edge, comprehensive, coordinated care. To learn more, visit njhealth.org or the media resources page.


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