Lower airway responses to rhinovirus-Hanks in healthy subjects with and without allergy

A role for respiratory viruses in the pathogenesis Of asthma is supported by several lines of evidence, including the results of epidemiologic and experimental rhinovirus (RV)-16 infection studies. ^{I, 2} Although these studies suggested that allergic rhinitis (AR) may be a predisposing factor, the degree of generalizability of the findings to other viruses was unknown. Earlier studies conducted in our laboratory failed to detect changes in lower airway patency or methacholine responsiveness during either experimental influenza A or RV-39 infections, when the latter was assessed by using a maximum methach01ine concentration of 25 mg/ml. ^{3, 4}

The purpose of this study was to document the lower airway effects of experimental infection with a different rhinovirus serotype, the Hanks strain (RV-H), in healthy subjects with AR and in subjects without AR. Additionally, a higher maximum methacholine concentration (50 mg/ml) than that used in previous studies was used to assess lower airway responsiveness