Professor Kenneth Broadley

Research

Research interests

Current research interests include:

• Studies on the mechanisms of lung inflammation and lung function changes in asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and viral infection of the airways. Identification of the mechanisms of action of established and novel drugs for the treatment of airways diseases.
• Studies to evaluate the actions of dietary trace amines such as tyramine and β-phenylethylamine found in cheese, yoghourt and wines, and related amphetamine-like drugs. Particular interest is focused on cardiovascular actions of amphetamines such as ecstasy, methamphetamine and cathinone, the active            constituent of khat leaves, chewed for their euphoric effects. These agents have been implicated in cardiovascular complications associated with their overuse and abuse.
• Studies on the mechanisms involved in cardiac protection from ischaemic damage of the heart caused by blockade of a coronary artery (myocardial infarction, heart attack). The two main endogenous substances of interest are catecholamines, such as adrenaline, and adenosine. These exert protection of            the heart from contractile failure following occlusion of a coronary artery by a blood clot and from myocardial infarction (an area of dead cardiac tissue). Adrenaline has been used for over a hundred years for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and is still the drug of choice for attempts to restart the            heart after acute heart failure. Adrenaline and adenosine work by interacting with specific receptor sites in the heart, adenosine through P₁ purinoceptors and adrenaline through β-adrenoceptors. We are studying the mechanisms for cardioprotection with an interest in the A₃ receptor subtype for adenosine and whether β₁, β₂, and β₃ subtypes have different and opposing actions on the            heart during ischaemia.

Collaborators

Dr Joachim Bugert in the Medical Microbiology Department of the Medical School on viral infection of the airways. We are particularly interested in influenza and para-influenza-3 virus infection and the mechanisms of lung inflammation and its effects on lung function.

Dr Tony Nials, GlaxoSmithKline who has co-supervised 4 PhD students supported by the company over the past 10 years.

Key expertise

• Acute and chronic in vivo models of airways diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and viral infection.
• Ability to simultaneously examine drug effects on early and late asthmatic responses, airways hyperreactivity and inflammatory cell influx, as well as a range of markers in BAL fluid and lung histology.
• Models of mucus hypersecretion.
• Models of viral exacerbations of asthma with viral load superimposed on antigen-induced changes.
• In vivo and in vitro evaluation of cardiovascular function with interest in abattoir specimens of coronary artery contractile function.

Projects

• Studies on the exacerbation of pulmonary inflammation by viral infection
• Roles of trace amine-associated receptors in cardiovascular responses to dietary trace amines

Biography