Rhinovirus-induced Interferon-γ and Airway Responsiveness in Asthma

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Abstract
The majority of asthma exacerbations are caused by respiratory infections, with rhinovirus (RV) being the most common virus. Re- cent evidence has suggested that decreased generation of IFN- is associated with more severe colds and delayed elimination of virus. Whether the generation of IFN- also has any relationship to gen- eral features of asthma severity has yet to be determined. To evalu- ate this hypothesis, peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 19 subjects with atopy and asthma were incubated with RV16 for 6 days to determine IFN- and interleukin (IL)-5 production; these responses were then compared with measurements of airflow ob- struction and airway responsiveness. RV16-induced IFN- produc- tion correlated significantly with the methacholine PD (r 0.50, p 0.03), and the ratio of RV16-induced IFN-:IL-5 correlated with % predicted FEV1 (r 0.53, p 0.02). In contrast, there were no significant associations between measures of asthma severity and RV-induced IL-5. These findings suggest that a cytokine imbalance with a deficient Th1 response to RV, but not a Th2 response, is associated with measures of asthma severity and support the con- cept that impaired antiviral responses may be associated with