The effects of a multisite aerobic exercise intervention on asthma morbidity in sedentary adults with asthma: the Ex-asthma study randomised controlled trial protocol

Objective: Aerobic exercise can improve cardiovascular fitness and does not seem to be detrimental to patients with asthma, though its role in changing asthma control and inflammatory profiles is unclear. The main hypothesis of the current randomised controlled trial is that aerobic exercise will be superior to usual care in improving asthma control. Key secondary outcomes are asthma quality of life and inflammatory profiles. Design: A total of 104 sedentary adults with physician-diagnosed asthma will be recruited. Eligible participants will undergo a series of baseline assessments including: the asthma control questionnaire; the asthma quality-of-life questionnaire and the inflammatory profile (assessed from both the blood and sputum samples). On completion of the assessments, participants will be randomised (1:1 allocation) to either 12-weeks of usual care or usual care plus aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise will consist of three supervised training sessions per week. Each session will consist of taking a short-acting bronchodilator, 10 min of warm-up, 40 min of aerobic exercise (50–75% of heart rate reserve for weeks 1–4, then 70–85% for weeks 5–12) and a 10 min cool-down. Within 1 week of completion, participants will be reassessed (same battery as at baseline). Analyses will assess the difference between the two intervention arms on postintervention levels of asthma control, quality of life and inflammation, adjusting for age, baseline inhaled corticosteroid prescription, body weight change and pretreatment dependent variable level. Missing data will be handled using standard multiple imputation techniques. Ethics and dissemination: The study has been approved by all relevant research ethics boards. Written consent will be obtained from all participants who will be able to withdraw at any time. Results: The result will be disseminated to three groups of stakeholder groups: (1) the scientific and professional community; (2) the research participants and (3) the general public. Registration Details: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT0095334

Présence de Dasypoda maura Perez, 1895, en Algérie

K. Louadi, Maghni Noudjoud, Benachour Karima, Aguib Sihem, Berchi Selima, Mihoubi I. Présence de Dasypoda maura Perez, 1895, en Algérie. In: Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, volume 112 (2), juin 2007. p. 252

Effects of extracellular triphosphate nucleotides and nucleosides on airway smooth muscle cell proliferation.

Extracellular ATP and uridine triphosphate (UTP) have a range of effects on a wide variety of cells through the activation of P(2) receptors. The aim of this work was to establish if stimulation with ATP and UTP enhances airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell proliferation and to determine the type of receptor mediating this effect. Proliferation of rat ASM cells was assessed through bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) uptake and by cell counting. At concentrations of 10(-6) and 10(-5) M, ATP and UTP induced significant increases in BrdU incorporation. ATP analogs specific for the P(2X) and P(2Y1) receptor subtypes had no effect. UDP (a P(2Y6) receptor agonist) produced significant decreases in BrdU incorporation and cell counts. Adenosine, the metabolite of ATP, produced an increase in cell proliferation through stimulation of the A(1) receptor. A(2) and A(3) receptor stimulation had no effect. Reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that mRNA transcripts for the P(2Y2), P(2Y4), P(2Y6), A(1), A(2), and A(3) receptor subtypes were present in cultured ASM cells. These data show that extracellular UTP, ATP, and their metabolites may affect airway remodeling by increasing or by reducing (P(2Y6) receptor) ASM cell proliferation