Genetic factors in response to inhaled asthma medicines

Asthma is a long-term disease of the airways. Some people’s airways are more sensitive to certain things in the air, like smoke and dust. These things can cause the airways to swell and narrow. This can cause coughing or wheezing and make it hard to breathe. Inhaled corticosteroids are medicines used to control asthma. These drugs are breathed directly into the lungs. This allows the drugs to work faster at lower doses. But for about 1 in 4 people with bad asthma, these drugs do not work well. Past studies have found genes linked to poor response to these drugs. But those studies only looked at small groups of white children with asthma. However, asthma is more common in black children and other minority children. In this project, researchers are using BioVU to look for these genes in a larger, more diverse population. This will include black and other minority patients with asthma. The results may help doctors determine which patients might need a different medicine to control their asthma.