New Treatment for Severe Asthma

New Treatment for Severe Asthma

Overview

  • Post By : Khushboo Sharma

  • Source: New England Journal of Medicines

  • Date: 28 May,2018

A new method to treat severe asthma has been developed by the researchers from McMaster University and the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St.Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, collaborating with their partnering institutions. The study was performed over 200 peoples who were suffering from severe asthma, it was observed that the new treatment has the ability to minimize the requirement of corticosteroids by upto 70% as well as improving the lung function and many asthma symptoms as well.

Currently for the treatment of severe asthma there is a high use of corticosteroids on a high dose, such as prednisone, which is used to control exacerbations. Therefore, replacing such medicines and reducing the need for corticosteroids with alternative treatments will be preferable as these medications are connected with many sort of serious side effects from prolonged use- including multi-organ toxicities and immunosuppression.

“The ability of dupilumab to increase lung function as markedly as it did in this study, even in the face of [corticosteroid] withdrawal, indicates that it appears to be inhibiting key drivers of lung inflammation,” the researchers noted.

Recently an antibody called as dupilumab has been found which is very effective for the treatment of saviour asthma, it has been found by Dr.Parmeswaran Nair, who is a staff respirologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and a Professor of medicine at McMaster University, along with a team of researcher and the result was published in the New England Journal of Medicines.

“The ability of dupilumab to increase lung function as markedly as it did in this study, even in the face of [corticosteroid] withdrawal, indicates that it appears to be inhibiting key drivers of lung inflammation,” the researchers noted.

“Ultimately, our goal is to find new treatment pathways that allow us to circumvent the use of corticosteroids,” said Dr. Nair. “Since dupilumab showed a significant improvement on asthma control regardless of eosinophil levels, we may be able to use this treatment for a wider range of patients than we previously thought possible. This might be due to the broad effects on inflammation in asthma of the two proteins that we were able to block with dupilumab. The treatment was not associated with any serious side effects.”

Dr. Nair and his team presented the details of their study at the American Thoracic Society's international conference in San Diego this past week. There, researchers and clinicians from around the world gathered to discuss respiratory illnesses and the latest breakthroughs in treatment.

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