Immunome Research
Open Access

An update on monoclonal antibody-based therapy for asthma

International Conference and Exhibtion on Antibodies

August 10-11, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Garry M Walsh

University of Aberdeen, UK

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Immunome Res

Abstract :

Current therapies for asthma are aimed at controlling disease symptoms and for the majority of asthmatics inhaled corticosteroid anti-inflammatory therapy is effective. However, this approach requires life-time therapy while a subset of patients remains symptomatic despite optimal treatment creating a clear unmet medical need. It is recognised that airway inflammation is key to asthma pathogenesis. Biopharmaceutical approaches have identified new therapies that target key cells and mediators that drive the inflammatory responses in the asthmatic lung. Such an approach may provide disease-modifying treatments. Significant areas of drug development include humanised monoclonal antibodies (mAb) for asthma therapy including those targeting the Th2 cytokines IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13. However, early clinical trials with these biologics in patients with asthma were for the most part disappointing even though they were highly effective in animal models of asthma. It is now generally accepted that asthma is a complex, heterogeneous mixture of syndromes that can be sub-divided into several phenotypes on the basis of clinical, physiological and inflammatory markers that in turn can result in variable responses to treatment. This in turn led to a rapidly evolving realisation that significant clinical effects with anti-cytokine-based therapies are observed in carefully selected patient populations that take asthma phenotypes into account. The development of discriminatory biomarkers and genetic profiling may aid identification of such patients with asthma. This talk will summarise the current evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of targeting Th2 cytokines in patients with poorly controlled asthma.

Biography :

Email: g.m.walsh@abdn.ac.uk