Severe asthmatic bronchial smooth muscle decreases epithelial response to rhinovirus infection.

Asthma is a very frequent airway disease that affects 6 to 20% of the population. Severe asthma, represents 3 to 5% of all asthmatic patients and is histologically characterized by an increased bronchial smooth muscle (BSM) mass and clinically by viral exacerbations. Functionally, BSM remodeling had a poor prognostic value in asthma, since higher BSM mass was associated with lower lung function and increased exacerbation rate. However, the role of BSM as a potential actor of asthma exacerbation has only been sparsely suggested. We thus hypothesis that asthmatic BSM cells could act on bronchial epithelium and modified its response to rhinovirus infection.