Anti-asbestos drug could prevent harmful effects

The Daily Telegraph 10/04/08 reported that a drug that could protect people from the harmful effects of inhaling asbestos fibres decades ago has been found.

A study, published in Science, that for the first time explains how the fibres lead to the chronic lung inflammation that causes cancer.

Prof Jürg Tschopp of the University of Lausanne and colleagues in Europe and the United States report that the inflammation is linked to a complex of proteins, known as the Nalp3 inflammasome.

This protein complex is also involved in other inflammatory processes such as gout, which can be treated with a drug called Anakinra.

Now the team believes that this same drug may also be useful for slowing the progression of asbestosis, silicosis or other lung diseases linked with inhaling mineral fibres.

Asbestosis is the scarring of lung tissue resulting from the chronic inflammation triggered by the particles, which in turn makes the lung less efficient and breathing more difficult.

"Because exposure to asbestos increases not only the risk of asbestosis, but also lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other uncurable cancers, this suggested new treatment is highly desirable," says Prof Tschopp.

He said that use of Anakinra would be used for prevention and not a cure. "Rather persons exposed to asbestos in the past and thus at high risk to get asbestosis or lung cancer could be treated with an inhibitor drug."

Given the success of treating gout this way, "we are therefore quite optimistic that the same treatment will work for asbestosis."

"We have not started yet, but I am sure that somewhere in the world clinicians will."
Dr Joanna Owens, Cancer Research UK senior scientific officer, comments: "This important laboratory research brings us a step closer to understanding how asbestos causes the chronic inflammation that can lead to cancer.

"These results should help scientists find better ways to treat people who have been exposed to asbestos in the past. But Anakinra will need thorough testing in clinical trials before we'll know if it's safe and effective at preventing asbestos-related cancers."

The use of asbestos half a century ago has triggered an epidemic that will kill 200,000 people in Britain through lung cancer and mesothelioma, an untreatable cancer of the mesothelium, a thin membrane that lines the chest.

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