Beclomethasone dipropionate attenuates airways hyperresponsiveness to neurokinin A and histamine in asthma.
BACKGROUND
Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are the most effective anti-inflammatory agents available for the treatment of asthma but they produce only modest effects on airway inflammation and non-specific bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR). However, little is known about the possibility that treatment with ICS might cause additional protection on BHR to inhaled tachykinins such as neurokinin A (NKA).


OBJECTIVE
Therefore, we compared the effects of beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) on the degree of BHR to inhaled histamine and NKA in a double-blind, controlled, cross-over study of asthmatic patients.


METHODS
Patients attended the laboratory before and after each 6 weeks treatment period to undertake concentration-response studies with histamine and NKA. Bronchial responsiveness to both funs was expressed as the provocative concentration producing a 20% decrease in FEV(1) from baseline (PC(20)).


RESULTS
BDP therapy attenuated the constrictor response to both agonists to a similar degree, their geometric mean (range) PC(20) values increasing from 0.47 (0.21-1.41) mg/ml to 2.43 (0.51-4.50) mg/ml (P<0.01, post-salb vs. post-BDP treatment) and from 101.7 (27.3-356.1) microg/ml to 666.7 (151.5-1,000) microg/ml (P<0.01, post-salb vs. post-BDP treatment) for histamine and NKA, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Airway responsiveness to histamine and NKA is reduced by BDP to the same extent. As a result of these findings, provocation with NKA is unlikely to provide additional useful information in the assessment of airway inflammation in asthma.
Prosperini
Gaetano
G
Dipartimento di Medicina Interna e Specialistica, Sezione di Malattie Respiratorie, Università di Catania, Via Passo Gravina 187, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Arcidiacono
Giuseppe
G
Ciamarra
Ida
I
Crimi
Nunzio
N
Polosa
Riccardo
R
D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000328:Adult; D000420:Albuterol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001507:Beclomethasone / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016535:Bronchial Hyperreactivity / Q000503:physiopathology; D001985:Bronchial Provocation Tests; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006632:Histamine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015288:Neurokinin A; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D000318:Adrenergic beta-Agonists; D006632:Histamine; D015288:Neurokinin A; D001507:Beclomethasone; D000420:Albuterol