Targeting Single Molecules in Asthma Benefits Few.
Asthma is a lung disorder triggered by various airborne factors in susceptible individuals. Although generally controlled, asthma can be severe and difficult to treat. Presently, increasing numbers of pharmaceuticals capable of blocking or mimicking specific endogenous molecules are undergoing clinical trials in asthmatic individuals whose symptoms are poorly controlled despite adherence to guideline therapies. Unfortunately, only a few, meticulously selected patients have been found to minimally benefit. These findings not only confirm that the molecular pathogenesis of severe asthma is variable between patients but also suggest that each molecular defect is likely to contribute little on its own in each patient. We opine that therapies targeting a specific molecular defect are predestined to yield marginal effects in the treatment of severe asthma.
School of Anatomy, Physiology, and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
Amy
A
Chang
Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Electronic address: ynuk.bosse@criucpq.ulaval.ca.
Ynuk
Y
Bossé
D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy / Q000379:methods
D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents
airway hyper-responsiveness; asthma; biologics; molecular heterogeneity; precision medicine