It seems that AP2 protein in our bodies not only increases risk of diabetes and atherosclerosis, it also plays a vital role in the incidence and fast-growing development of asthma. Scientists from the The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia and US associated researchers have carried out studies that proved that the AP2 protein is present in the human airway epithelial cells and increases the incidence of allergic respiratory diseases such as asthma.

The adipocyte/macrophage fatty acid-binding protein called AP2 is not just a risk factor for obesity, diabetes or arteries' walls hardening - it is also a negative factor of asthma. This harmful protein found in our body has no beneficial function upon our health, it appears mostly when diseases occur in an individual and all its effects are adverse. It has been previously traced in fat cells and macrophages (a type of immune cells) and now its presence was also registered in the lining of human lungs.

In order to prove that AP2 protein has a harmful effect upon the allergic respiratory conditions, Australian and American experts have developed genetically modified mice that could not produce aP2 protein. Therefore, they could not become "obese, diabetic or atherosclerotic. They don't develop fatty liver disease, and they don't develop asthma," co-author of the study Dr. Gokhan S. Hotamisligil, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said.

This is the first research that has provided a clear link between the immune system and the metabolic one, as the AP2 protein was found to influence multiple serious diseases: diabetes, atherosclerosis and asthma. In this respect, Dr. Hotamisligil stated: "The most important implication of this research is that it demonstrates a direct link between the pathways that lead to obesity and diabetes and asthma."

Therefore, reducing high sugar levels in the blood stream and obesity can prevent anyone from getting ill with asthma: "aP2 tends to go along with your weight and the state of your glucose metabolism. So, if you're overweight and have asthma, losing weight might help your asthma," Dr. Hotamisligiladded added.

AP2-blocking drugs have already been manufactured by some pharmaceutical companies. They have been tested on mice and they proved to work well. But the development of the project is still in progress and it may take a few years until all the studies are completed and the drugs would be safe for humans. Dr. Hotamisligiladded said that the drugs "work very well in animal models and produce the same effects we've seen in genetically engineered mice. But all the work is pre-clinical."