Science has found a way to treat asthma attacks, and it changes everything

People living with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease could soon receive a new treatment for their symptoms. A recent clinical trial showed that an antibody drug could prevent and reduce some attacks of asthma and COPD, outperforming the only standard drug available today.

Scientists from the UK, Australia and Sweden conducted a double-blind, randomized, controlled phase II trial to test the potential of the drug benralizumab to treat a specific type of asthma or attack of COPD. Patients at high risk for these attacks were randomly selected to receive either conventional steroid medications or a single injection dose of benralizumab (alone or in combination with steroids). The researchers found that those who received benralizumab were much less likely to require further treatment or be hospitalized. The findings could pave the way for the already approved benralizumab to become the first new drug in 50 years to treat these potentially life-threatening attacks, the researchers said.

Benralizumab is an antibody made in a laboratory by AstraZeneca that is designed to reduce the number of specific white blood cells called eosinophils. Although these are cells that usually help the body defend against bacterial infections or parasites, they often play a role in allergy and asthma symptoms.

In some people, asthma, COPD or other respiratory diseases are often triggered by high levels of eosinophils. In 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug benralizumab as an add-on treatment for people with severe eosinophilic asthma. But researchers have begun to study whether the drug could be used to treat other types of asthma or COPD caused by eosinophils.

People with asthma or COPD may sometimes experience acute attacks or worsening symptoms, including wheezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. If not treated properly, these attacks can eventually cause permanent damage to the lungs, increasing the risk of serious illness. Today, treatment with steroids is usually indicated to control attacks, but these drugs do not always work completely, and many patients require additional treatment or are admitted to hospital. Steroids are not

no risk because they can cause unwanted side effects such as weight gain or chronic complications such as type 2 diabetes.

Help with less risk

Eosinophils are thought to contribute to a third of COPD exacerbations and nearly half of asthma attacks, giving benralizumab an opportunity to treat these episodes.

Researchers recruited 158 patients with asthma or COPD who had recently had an attack and randomized them into three groups: those who received the steroid prednisone (for 5 days), those who received benralizumab only (single injection), and those who received prednisolone and benralizumab.

Although phase II studies generally provide more accurate data than phase I studies, evidence of treatment effectiveness is not conclusive, so larger studies are needed. But in this study, those who received benralizumab were less likely to fail (45% compared with 74% of patients who received steroids). It also took longer for benralizumab treatment to become ineffective, resulting in fewer doctor or hospital visits. Conclusions they published last week in Lancet of Respiratory Medicine. Because benralizumab is already used to treat other diseases, it is possible that the drug’s approval timeline for treating asthma and COPD—diseases that cause 3.8 million deaths a year worldwide—will be shortened.

This article was translated from Gizmodo US by Lucas Handley. You can find the original version here.