Targeting interleukins to treat severe asthma

Abstract

Severe asthma is thought to be a heterogeneous disease with different phenotypes predicated primarily on the nature of the inflammatory cell infiltrate and response to corticosteroid therapy. This group of patients often has refractory disease with an associated increase in morbidity and mortality, and there remains a need for better therapies for severe asthmatics. Inflammatory changes in asthma are driven by immune mechanisms, within which interleukins play an integral role. Interleukins are cell-signaling cytokines that are produced by a variety of cells, predominantly T cells. Knowledge about their actions has improved the understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma and provided potential targets for novel therapies. To date, this has not translated into clinical use. However, there are ongoing clinical trials that use monoclonal antibodies for various interleukins, some of which have shown to be promising in Phase II studies.

Keywords::

• cytokines
• interleukins
• monoclonal antibody
• severe asthma
• T lymphocytes

Financial & competing interests disclosure

A Menzies-Gow has attended advisory boards for NAPP, Novartis and Genentech. He has also received financial assistance to attend international conferences from Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Boeringer Ingelheim. He has received lecture fees from Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and Chiesi. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.