Imperial research investigating the effect of cigarette smoke on zebrafish is one of four pioneering projects that will study asthma in non-mammals

Almost £400,000 has been awarded across four research projects working to better understand the basic biology of human asthma – without the use of traditional mammalian models.

This is the latest of the NC3Rs' (National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research) strategic award schemes. The scheme challenges scientists to approach asthma research questions in a completely novel way. More specifically it encourages them to seek alternatives to the mammalian lung that can be used in research to give valuable insights into how the disease manifests itself.

Until now, the use of non-mammalian models in respiratory disease research has been almost non-existent. However, their use has improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of other diseases, and these mechanisms have been found to be similar in humans. This suggests that non-mammalian models may be useful alternatives for studying asthma.

Professor Margaret Dallman and her team from the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London will study the response of zebrafish gills to substances thought to induce or exacerbate asthma, such as cigarette smoke or viruses. The zebrafish gill has never been used to understand and model a human disease, but lungs and gills are more similar in structure and function than may be commonly believed.

Professor Dallman, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial, explained: “Our approach aims to use a non-invasive tissue sampling method. As well as optical imaging techniques which can be used in the same animal over time, thereby reducing the number of fish needed, refining the sampling methods and producing more information per animal used. If our study shows that the zebra fish is a good model for asthma, this should lead to a reduction in the number of mice used in asthma research.”

Alongside Imperial’s research with zebrafish, the NC3Rs scheme has funded projects that will use fruit flies, zebrafish and a type of soil-living amoebae, known as a slime mould, to better understand how asthma is triggered and how new treatments may act.

Advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of asthma, could lead to more effective and safer treatments for patients. Asthma affects around 5.4 million people in the UK and 300 million people around the world. Asthma is a condition in which irritants can lead to inflammation, narrowing of the airways and breathing difficulties.