Identifying and testing potential new anti-asthma agents.
BACKGROUND
Inhaled corticosteroids alone or with long-acting beta-2 agonists (LABA) are the basic treatment for stable asthma. While the majority of patients are controllable, some patients retain chronic severe disease and develop permanent alterations in airway function. For patients such as these it is important to better understand the mechanisms of asthma so that alternative approaches can be developed.


METHODS
Based on data from in vitro cell culture, animal models and clinical trials, this review discusses potential agents targeting either key effector cells, mediators and their receptors in asthma pathogenesis or their signaling cascade molecules.


CONCLUSIONS
As targeting single Th2 cytokines and their receptors has been shown to have limited clinical benefit, it is important to identify and test potential new therapeutic agents. Recent studies suggest that blockade of IgE synthesis, its interaction with its receptors and downstream signaling, identification of molecular targets in innate immune and airways structural cells, and fresh anti-neutrophil strategies should be prominent among these. Further studies are required to clarify the relationship between airways remodeling and asthma severity so that appropriate patients may be targeted.
Guy's Hospital, King's College London, MRC and Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma ,  Department of Asthma ,  Allergy and Respiratory Science, 5th Floor, Tower Wing, London SE1 9RT ,  UK   +44 207 188 3392 ;  ying.sun@kcl.ac.uk.
Cailong
C
Fang
Chris J
CJ
Corrigan
Sun
S
Ying