Abstract

REGATEIRO, Frederico; MOURA, Ana Luísa  and  FARIA, Emília. Novel biologicals for the treatment of asthma. Rev Port Imunoalergologia [online]. 2017, vol.25, n.2, pp.99-113. ISSN 0871-9721.

Most of asthmatic patients maintain controlled symptoms with inhaled glucocorticoid therapy with or without bronchodilators. However, about 5% of asthma patients presents severe asthma, refractory to conventional therapy, with a great impact in quality of life. This subgroup of asthmatics accounts for the majority of hospital admissions, emergency visits, non-programmed consultations and asthma-related deaths. Recently, several biologic therapeutics were developed for the treatment of severe refractory asthma. Anti-IL-5 monoclonal antibodies have shown efficacy in eosinophilic asthma. Promising therapeutics targeting IL-4, IL-13 or TSLP are currently under development. The use of specific targeting treatments requires a deep knowledge of the underlying physiopathology of the disease. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that asthma endotypes are well characterized and that relevant biomarkers are available in order to determine, in a personalized manner, which specific therapy is appropriate for each asthmatic patient

Keywords : Asthma; monoclonal antibodies; asthma biomarkers; asthma endotypes; IgE; IL-5; IL-4; IL-13; biological treatment; TSLP.

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