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| |  Husband and Wife Team Make Breakthrough Discovery SYDNEY, Australia -- July 2, 1997 -- A husband and wife team have earned the reputation as the modern day Marie and Pierre Curie because of their discovery of a link between heart disease and a bacteria that generally causes respiratory tract infections. Professor Pekka Saikku and Dr. Maija Leinonen of the National Public Health Institute in Finland discovered the link between the bacterial infection, Chlamydia pneumoniae and cardiovascular disease and will present the impact of their research to the future treatment of coronary heart disease at a satellite symposium whilst also attending the 20th International Congress of Chemotherapy in Sydney, Australia. Their studies have found that C. pneumoniae may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease, like high cholesterol levels. Studies have shown that infection with C. pneumoniae, when exacerbated by factors such as smoking and poor general health, can precipitate physiological changes that may lead to heart attack. According to Professor Saikku and Dr. Leinonen, eliminating C. pneumoniae infection could lower the incidence of heart disease. Preliminary results from current research have shown that heart disease patients who test positive to C. pneumoniae infection and are treated with antibiotics, such as roxithromycin, have a reduced risk of heart attack. Chlamydia pneumoniae has also been linked to the development of asthma in some patients. Associate Professor Francesco Blasi, of the Institute of Respiratory Diseases at the University of Milan is a leading investigator in an international study researching the link between C. pneumoniae and asthma and the effect of treating asthmatic patients with the antibiotic roxithromycin. Also in Sydney for the conference, Associate Professor Blasi said early research found that repeated or prolonged exposure to C. pneumoniae may have a casual association with wheezing, asthmatic bronchitis and asthma. These studies suggested that Chlamydia pneumoniae was a possible cause of adult-onset asthma. If antibiotic therapy proves to be successful in the trial hundreds of thousands of asthmatics may be relieved of their symptoms.
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