New drug could improve symptoms
23 October 2007

A new drug could help reduce the symptoms of people with severe asthma, according to research published in the Lancet medical journal.

Trials of the drug, called Pitrakinra, in 28 people with asthma showed it reduced breathlessness by up to three-and-a-half times compared with a placebo, when they were exposed to cat hairs or house-dust that would otherwise have triggered an attack.

Pitrakinra works by inhibiting the development of molecules called cytokines (examples of which include interleukin-4 and interleukin-13), which are believed to play a significant role in the development of asthma. Scientists believe the drug will cause fewer side effects and prove more effective in patients who are resistant to current treatments.

Around half of the 5.2 million people with asthma in the UK have severe asthma symptoms, and 20% of those find that their asthma is not controllable with medicines currently available.

Director of the MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma, Professor Tak Lee, said: ‘For a long time research has suggested that IL4 and IL13, either independently or together, may cause asthma, so the discovery that a drug can reduce the severity of the allergic asthmatic response by blocking their action is very exciting.

'Clearly further trials are needed now in patients with different severities of asthma to define more clearly when and how best to use the drug and to compare its effectiveness with other currently available treatments.'