Rhinovirus-Induced Exacerbations of Asthma and COPD

Hershenson, Marc B.

We next set out to develop a model of viral-induced asthma exacerbation [72] . We employed a commonly used model of allergic airways disease. Mice were treated with intraperitoneal and intranasal ovalbumin and then infected with rhinovirus. Mice treated with ovalbumin alone demonstrated a significant increase in airways responsiveness, with respiratory system resistances higher than those obtained after rhinovirus infection. When we combined ovalbumin and rhinovirus treatments, airways hyperresponsiveness increased significantly over that generated by either ovalbumin or rhinovirus alone (Figure 3 ). This state of airways hyperresponsiveness persisted at least 4 days after infection. When we examined airway inflammation, we found additive or synergistic increases in airway neutrophils, eosinophils, macrophages, lymphocytes, and chemokines such as CCL11 and CCL2. We also found that the combination of ovalbumin and rhinovirus caused additive increases in the Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-13.