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(thoughtful music)

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<v ->Asthma affects over 300 million people worldwide</v>

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and each year is responsible for nearly

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a quarter of a million premature deaths.

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In the United States, severe asthmatics,

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despite only representing five to 10%

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of the asthmatic population

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are responsible for half of the 58 billion dollars

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occurred in asthma-related healthcare costs annually.

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In our state of Mississippi, we rank first and second

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for childhood and severe asthma,

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and fourth for asthma mortality.

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We also have a population of horses

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suffering from a severe asthma-like disease.

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There's a critical and immediate need

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to address the severe asthma phenotype

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and develop new therapies.

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Thus, my project looked at magnesium sulfate

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to do just that.

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Now magnesium sulfate, or what you may

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more commonly know as Epsom salts

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were a drug first used to preterm labor contractions

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by relaxing the smooth muscle in the uterus.

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There is evidence this drug also relaxes

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airway smooth muscle during an asthma attack,

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but it has not yet been adopted in the standard of care

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for emergency asthma treatment.

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Why is that?

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Well in order to test the solo effects of this drug,

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other drugs known to to reverse asthma

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would have to be withheld,

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and this is ethically impossible.

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But with our population of asthmatic horses,

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we were able to ask the question,

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"Does intravenous magnesium sulfate

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"relax the airways in the absence of other drugs?"

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To do so, we delivered three different doses

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of magnesium sulfate intravenously

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to seven of our horses experiencing a severe asthma attack.

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To analyze the data, we asked our horses

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to swallow an esophageal balloon

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and wear a pulmonary function mask.

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The mask evaluates air flow

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and the balloon in the esophagus

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undergoes the same pressures required

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to inflate and deflate the lung.

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What we can see from my graph

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is that each of the three doses

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of magnesium sulfate during the IV drip

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rapidly and effectively

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open and relax the airways.

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Now, during the 30 minute withdrawal period

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where we observe the horses

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we did see the pressures rise,

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but they still remain significantly reduced from baseline.

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Thus proving that magnesium sulfate as a drug

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effective in treating asthmatic patients.

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Data previously generated in our lab

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says that our horses respond to drugs

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in a manner analogous to that of human asthmatics.

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Now, despite magnesium sulfate's short action,

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it does prove effective

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with conjunctive use of inhaled therapies.

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Due to magnesium sulfate's ability to open the airways,

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inhaled therapies will be better able

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to penetrate into the distal airways,

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known for perpetuating a severe asthma attack.

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Thus, my research proves magnesium sulfate

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is effective as a monotherapy,

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and that there is strong rationale

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for its implementation into the emergency asthma therapies

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and treatments for both horse and human asthmatics.

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(harmonious music)