Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile of reslizumab in asthma

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Allergic asthma is a Th2-driven inflammatory process characterized by the infiltration of eosinophils into the airways. IL-5 is a key trigger for eosinophil expansion and release from the bone marrow and plays a crucial role in the entire life span of eosinophils from differentiation to maturation and survival. IL-5 can be considered among the most obvious targets to selectively inhibit eosinophilic airway inflammation.

Areas covered: The preclinical and clinical development of reslizumab, a humanized mAb against IL-5 that has been developed to block IL-5 bioactivity and reduce biologically available IL-5, are described with a particular focus on its pharmacodynamics (PK)/pharmacokinetic (PD) profile.

Expert opinion: Although pivotal trials have documented that reslizumab can be recommended as add-on therapy for the treatment of patients with severe eosinophilic asthma, there is still important information that is lacking and some PK and PD properties of reslizumab are still not fully understood.

KEYWORDS:

• Asthma
• eosinophils
• humanized monoclonal antibody
• interleukin-5
• reslizumab

Declaration of interest

M Cazzola has been a consultant at Teva. 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. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.