A protein which is considered to stimulate blood vessel growth was recently identified to be responsible for cell overgrowth in the development of polyps that characterize one of the most severe sinusitis forms.

The finding was disclosed by researchers from John Hopkins and is considered to have implications for development of novel therapies to treat the disease form that generally resist all current-day treatment options.

From Sciencedaily.com:

“This type of sinusitis isn’t subtle — you can spot the patients with polyps from across the room. They’re breathing through their mouths, they talk with nasal voices, they’re constantly sniffling, and their faces are swollen,” says Jean Kim, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology and Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Allergy and Asthma Center at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Kim explains that surgery to remove the polyps is one of the most common treatments for this disease. However, nasal and sinus polyps in these patients almost always regrow. “Once the patient has entered the cycle of growing polyps, it’s very hard to get out,” she says. Another common treatment is oral steroids, but these drugs are fraught with many harmful side effects and also only temporarily treat the disease.

She and her Johns Hopkins colleagues have long studied sinusitis, often growing sinus cells isolated from patients in petri dishes. After noticing that cells from patients with polyps typically multiplied faster than cells from normal patients, the researchers speculated that cells from polyp patients might be producing extra amounts of some type of growth factor, a protein that encourages cell growth.

Other researchers participating in this study were Hyun Sil Lee, Ph.D., and Allen Myers, Ph.D.