Genetic tests may provide asthma answers

Posted: June 28, 2013 at 8:42 pm

Researchers say genetic testing may help predict which children suffering from asthma will grow out of the condition.

No tests currently exist which can forecast which sufferers will be stuck with the symptoms all of their lives and which will recover as they age, but research from the University of Otago indicates genetic testing will help identify those who will have lifelong asthma.

Analysing data from the long-running Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a team of Otago and Duke University researchers found those with childhood asthma and higher genetic risk scores for being predisposed to it were more than one-third more likely to develop asthma long-term.

The findings, published online in the UK journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, looked at data from around 1000 children born in 1972-73.

The study investigated whether several genetic variants, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms and which carry a small increased risk of asthma, were related to the onset, persistence and severity of the condition.

It found that boys and girls with higher risk scores had a greater likelihood of developing asthma over the 38 years of follow-up than those with a lower genetic risk.

"Although our study revealed that genetic risks can help to predict which childhood-onset asthma cases remit and which become life-course-persistent, genetic risk prediction for asthma is still in its infancy," said lead author Daniel Belsky from Duke University.

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Genetic tests may provide asthma answers

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