Re: Protein marker for Asthma

"YKL-40 is what's known as a chitinase-like protein. It attaches itself to chitin, an abundant substance found in fungi, crustaceans and in insects like dust mites and cockroaches. It's also present in the pharynx and eggs of parasitic worms called helminths. Infection with helminths used to be common but is now rare in developed countries, according to the author of an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal, Dr. Burton Dickey, chairman of pulmonary medicine at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. These worms migrate through the skin into the bloodstream and travel through the lungs to get into the gastrointestinal tract, he said.

Humans don't manufacture chitin but do produce chitinases (enzymes that break down chitin) and chitinase-like enzymes (enzymes that bind to chitin, but don't break it down). The presence of chitin in the lungs may make the body believe that it has a helminth infection that it needs to defend against, Dickey said. Unfortunately, he pointed out, this defense mechanism may now be reacting to harmless dust mites instead."

Are they SURE that helminths aren't the problem? There are 14 that we know about that invade the lungs -- besides, not ALL "migrate through the skin" as suggested! Sheesh.
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