BU doctor ties house dust -- and roaches -- to asthma

Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, but it hits poor children especially hard. One-third of children who live in urban public housing have an allergic form of asthma, a story posted today by The New York Times says, which spurred a researcher now working in Boston to find out why.

Dr. Daniel G. Remick, a professor of pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine, vacuumed house dust, reduced it to an extract that could be injected into mice, and tested the primed rodents. When exposed to proteins found in cockroach exoskeletons and droppings, the mice had rodent versions of asthma attacks.

"For inner-city children, the major cause of asthma is not dust mites, not dog dander, not outdoor air pollen. It’s allergies to cockroaches," Remick told the Times. "We're pretty excited because this is the first time someone has actually taken stuff from houses where kids have asthma.”