Airway Disease - Clinical Research
Dr Omar Usmani, Head of Group
The Clinical Research group is developing non-invasive techniques to (i) assess regional airways physiology, particularly small airways and (ii) diagnose and monitor airway inflammation in COPD and asthma in adults and children for use in clinical research. We undertake patient clinical trials in asthma, COPD and cough.
Our research group is also involved in inhaled drug delivery to the lungs, including aerosol physics, device characteristics and patient-inhaler interactions. We are innovating methods to measure disease progression by monitoring biomarkers of airway inflammation and oxidative stress in induced/spontaneous sputum and bronchoscopy samples.
The non-invasive techniques we are designing to monitor COPD and asthma include analysis of exhaled breath for nitric oxide, ethane and other oxidation products and analysis of exhaled breath condensate and induced sputum for oxidation products, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, proteins, chemokines and cytokines using proteomic and metabonomic approaches.
Development is underway of portable exhaled breath analysers and on-line exhaled breath measurements.
The group is pioneering lung function tests using impulse oscillometry and is advancing novel methods to measure exhaled breath temperature, bronchial blood flow, and particulate matter.
Selected publications
Usmani OS; Biddiscombe MF; Barnes PJ. (15 Dec 2005). Regional lung deposition and bronchodilator response as a function of beta2-agonist particle size. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 172:1497-1504.
Usmani OS; Belvisi MG; Patel HJ; Crispino N; Birrell MA; Korbonits M; Korbonits D; Barnes PJ. (Feb 2005). Theobromine inhibits sensory nerve activation and cough. FASEB J. 19:231-233.
Usmani OS; Ito K; Maneechotesuwan K; Ito M; Johnson M; Barnes PJ; Adcock IM. (15 Sep 2005). Glucocorticoid receptor nuclear translocation in airway cells after inhaled combination therapy. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 172:704-712.
Dr Omar Usmani and members of his group in front of the Royal Brompton Hospital, July 2010
