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An international study has identified two new genetic variants that increase the risk of asthma, which could lead to potential new drug treatments.

The study, published in the international medical journal The Lancet was carried out by the Australian Asthma Genetics Consortium.

Winthrop Professor Philip Thompson, from UWA's School of Medicine and Pharmacology and Director of the Lung Institute of WA, said the researchers compared the DNA of thousands of asthma patients with healthy people and combined the results with other international studies.

"Two regions of the DNA were consistently different between asthmatics and non-asthmatics: one in the interlukin-6 receptor gene on chromosome 1 and the other near a gene called GARP on chromosome 11," Professor Thompson said.

Four leading WA asthma genetics groups contributed to the study: the Lung Institute of WA , the Busselton Health Study , the Raine Study and UWA's School of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Media references

Saskia Mazzella (Lung Institute of WA)  (+61 4) 17 973 262
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783