In laboratories at the University of Sharjah, researchers have uncovered a possible explanation for one of modern medicine's quieter frustrations: why some asthma patients, prescribed the most powerful anti-inflammatory drugs available, continue to suffer. Their experiments reveal that crystalline silica — a dust woven into desert winds and industrial workplaces — does not merely worsen lung inflammation when combined with common allergens, but appears to dismantle the very biological machinery through which corticosteroids do their healing work. For the hundreds of millions living with asthma
Silica dust worsens asthma inflammation and blocks steroid treatment, study finds
Approximately 442,000 deaths from asthma globally in 2023; severe asthma patients with reduced treatment responsiveness face persistent symptoms and life-threatening attacks.