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Future Research Directions in Asthma

An NHLBI Working Group Report

Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, Wisconsin; Division of Lung Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland; and Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Susan Banks-Schlegel, Ph.D., DLD/NHLBI, Two Rockledge Center, Room 10018, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7952. E-mail: Schleges{at}nih.gov

Over the last 20 years, the prevalence of asthma has nearly doubled and now affects 8–10% of the population in the United States. Asthma also remains a major illness in terms of morbidity and suffering, and is the leading cause of hospitalizations in children under 15 years of age. Because asthma poses a lifelong burden to patients and society, efforts to increase the understanding of its pathogenesis are a key factor leading to its control and cure. Consequently, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened a Working Group of extramural experts, entitled "Future Research Directions in Asthma," on April 9–10, 2003, to identify research areas of greatest promise and opportunity in the field of asthma. The priority areas identified for research in asthma include: (1) innate immunity, adaptive immunity, and tolerance; (2) mechanisms and consequences of persistent asthma and asthma exacerbations; (3) airway remodeling: clinical consequences and reversibility (clinical relevance and resolution); (4) genetics/gene–environment interactions, pharmacogenetics; (5) intervention/prevention/therapeutics; and (6) vascular basis of asthma.

Key Words: airway lung disease • asthma • innate immunity, asthma genetics • asthma exacerbations

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