Asthma comes in from the cold

Infection with viruses, such as those responsible for the common cold, may be linked to exacerbation of asthma. As the link becomes clearer, it may provide pharmaceutical companies with a new target for developing anti-asthma drugs. At the joint 15th International Congress of Allergology and Clinical Immunology and the Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology [ Stockholm, Sweden; June/July 1994 ], Professor Stephen Holgate from Southampton, UK, described how his group has used an elegant combination of epidemiology, clinical medicine and in vitro immunohistochemistry to investigate this relationship.