New Asthma Trials Shows Promise – Let’s Declare War on Asthma Starts Now!
#ATS2013. The World Asthma Foundation (WAF) is covering the American Thoracic Conference #ATS2013 this week in search of solutions for Asthma suffers everywhere. To that end, press reports published today reflect that a new type of asthma drug meant to attack the underlying causes of the respiratory disease slashed episodes by 87 percent in a mid-stage trial, making it a potential game changer for patients with moderate to severe disease, researchers said on Tuesday.
“Overall, these are the most exciting data we’ve seen in asthma in 20 years,” said Dr. Sally Wenzel, lead investigator for the 104-patient study of dupilumab, an injectable treatment being developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and French drugmaker Sanofi in reports to Reuters.
The drug also met all its secondary goals, such as improving symptoms and lung function and reducing the need for standard drugs called beta agonists.
Although far larger trials will be needed to confirm findings from the “proof of concept” study, researchers expressed optimism. They noted that dupilumab has also shown the ability to tame atopic dermatitis, or severe eczema, an allergic condition that is not well controlled by current treatments.
Results of the 12-week asthma study are being presented on Tuesday at the annual scientific meeting of the American Thoracic Society in Philadelphia.
WAF in our effort to Declare War On Asthma will be following this story very closely. Stay tuned for in depth interviews on this topic.
The U.S. EPA’s Coordinated Approach on Asthma Interview with Dr. Daniel Costa
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promotes scientific understanding of environmental asthma triggers and ways to manage asthma in community settings through research, education and outreach. With federal, state and local partners, we are building the nation’s capacity to control asthma and manage exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants linked to asthma. The purpose is to build knowledge and awareness to improve the quality of life for millions of Americans with asthma.
In the three minute with Daniel L. Costa, Sc.D, DABT, National Program Director for Air, Climate, & Energy Research Office of Research and Development we learn:
• The benefits of the 2013 ATS Conference
• The relationship/links between clean air and Asthma
• Clean air and Asthma studies
• About the EPA and Asthma
• Why the WAF War on Asthma is important
To learn more about the EPA and its efforts to support Asthma education visit http://www.epa.gov/asthma/
May Lead to Limited Access to Asthma Therapies and Testing
ATS-2013 – In the three minute with David S. Wilson, M.D, FCCP, with the Lung Institute at Columbus Regional Hospital we learn:
•How the proposed American Thoracic Society (ATS) Asthma Treatment Guidelines Present Problems for Patients that May Lead to Limited Access to Asthma Therapies and Testing
May Lead to Limited Access to Asthma Therapies and Testing
•Why the WAF War on Asthma is important to him
The Role of Nutrition and Nutritional Supplements in Asthma
Nutrition and Nutritional Supplements in Asthma Interview with Nicholas Kenyon, M.D. Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine University of California, Davis.
We learn about:
* Increased consumption of vegetables and fruit led to fewer respiratory symptoms and improved lung function
* Is obesity an independent risk factor for asthma in adults?
* Mouse model to adult trials in asthma. These options are cheap, readily available, and there is decent biological rationale to study them in severe asthma
* Effect of oral magnesium supplementation on measures of airway resistance and subjective assessment of asthma control
* Nitric oxide may be protective against the development of allergic airway inflammation and airways hyper-responsiveness
* Fish oils and Asthma
* Essential Vitamins, Elements, and Amino Acids—potential treatments such as
-Magnesium
-Vitamin A
-L-arginine
* EPA-enriched omega3 fatty acids as asthma supplements
* Diet’s impact on the immune system will be focus of increasing research
* Recommendations such as
– Olive oil !!!
– Walnut !!!
– Omega 3 fatty acids !!
– L- arginine !!
– Vitamins A, D !
– DASH diet – Fruit/Veg !!
Aerocrine, a medical technology company focused on improving the treatment of patients with inflamed airways by identifying nitric oxide (NO) as a marker of inflammation. Aerocrine has HQ in Sweeden.
The founders of Aerocrine emerged from the highly prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden where they were the first to identify nitric oxide (NO) as a marker of inflammation. Aerocrine has taken this significant discovery from laboratory to listed company and is now established in some of the world’s largest markets. The company markets NIOX MINO. A highly reliable and effective tool to assist in the diagnosis and control of airways disease.
If you or someone you know suffers from severe Asthma and or COPD then you owe it to yourself and to others to listen in on this interview with Chris Garvey FNP, MSN, MPA, FAACVPR Manager, Seton Pulmonary & Cardiac Rehabilitation that took place at the California Thoracic Society (CTS) 2013 Conference Carmel California.
Key take aways:
•The importance of exercise
•Taking your meds
•The benefits of multidisciplinary teams
•Early identification
•Effective treatment based on evidence based guidelines to reduce Exacerbation’s
•Reduced cost of care
•Effective Care
•Understand your symptoms
•Education
•Honest and frank discussion your doctor and or health care provider
•Getting the right meds
•Follow up with your doctor and or health care provider
High Risk Factors in Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome: Highly Prevalent But Grossly Underappreciated
By Tinka Davi, World Asthma Foundation
The statistics are staggering:
Every four minutes someone dies of COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Every day nine people die from asthma.
But what takes a higher toll is a combination of the two diseases, which is recognized as Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome or ACOS.
Because this syndrome has not received much attention by the medical community, the frequency of deaths due to ACOS alone has not been compiled.
ACOS, which was formerly called “asthmatic bronchitis,” is a commonly experienced, yet loosely defined clinical entity. It accounts for approximately 15 to 25 percent of the general population of obstructive airway diseases who experience worse outcomes compared to asthma or COPD alone.
Patients with ACOS have the combined risk factors of smoking and atopy such as hay fever. These adults are generally younger than patients with COPD and experience acute exacerbations or attacks of their breathing requiring immediate attention with higher frequency and greater severity than lone COPD.
Physicians and other healthcare professionals at UC Davis have taken their clinical experience and research nationally to increase public awareness.
“ACOS is concerning because it’s much worse in terms of exacerbations, or acute attacks of breathlessness, as compared to COPD.” said Amir Zeki, MD, assistant professor of medicine pulmonary, critical, and sleep medicine at the Center for Comparative Respiratory Biology and Medicine at the University of California Davis School Of Medicine.
Samuel Louie, MD and Amir Zeki, MD
Exacerbation is an acute flare up or worsening of the disease usually over two to three days that causes patients with asthma, COPD or both to seek immediate medical attention and a change in their daily medications.
An exacerbation is a flare up or worsening of the disease, otherwise known as an “attack.”
With an acute attack, the risk of hospitalization, need for steroids, days of missed work or school increases with ACOS, Zeki said. The prevalence of frequent exacerbations in ACOS is nearly two-and-a-half times higher than COPD and risk of severe exacerbations in ACOS is twice as high as COPD.
Zeki and Samuel Louie, MD are collaborating efforts to educate the medical field and the public about ACOS.
Louie, professor of medicine, is director of the UC Davis Asthma Network (UCAN) since 1998 and director of the UC Davis Reversible Obstructive Airway Disease (ROAD) Center, which serves adults and adolescents in Northern California who have difficult to control asthma, bronchiectasis and COPD.
“We are entering a new era of public awareness of people living with chronic lung disease such as asthma and COPD,” Louie said. “Our mission at UC Davis is to transform health care by integrating and provide quality patient care services these conditions, which promote patient education and safety, social networking, and to align our goals with national efforts to transform people’s lives. But we can achieve success without recognizing the clear and present danger from not recognizing the Asthma-COPD Overlap syndrome.”
The incidence of ACOS is becoming more prevalent. “One in five patients in our clinic will likely have ACOS,” Zeki said.
Louie agrees. “When patients learn what they have, they begin to look for more information and help. That is where we have to be ready to provide comprehensive services that are integrated and coordinated to help patients and their families navigate the complex modern health care system,” he said.
That’s why the two physicians are zealous in their efforts in providing ACOS education, not only for patients but to the medical community which is not as familiar with the syndrome as it is with asthma or COPD. They’d also like to see extensive research for treatment options.
“There’s no cure for asthma and there’s no cure for COPD, but we can treat them to improve their quality of life and prevent acute exacerbations,” Zeki said.
However, standard treatment options are not as aggressive as needed to treat the asthma-COPD syndrome.
“It really all begins with empathy.” Louie said. “Empathy within healthcare providers for how asthma, COPD and ACOS patients suffer when they are given prescription drugs without education on an individual level. We have to ignite that empathy by increasing awareness and providing education.”
The two physicians are board members of the World Asthma Foundation, which provides educational resources that inform patients, medical professionals and the general public about the latest clinical advances, management and treatment options for asthma disorders, including ACOS.
“I am convinced that every patient who lives with asthma, COPD or ACOS has character and intelligence but what they often lack is willpower.” Louie said. “And when physicians and their colleagues think COPD is ‘irreversible,’ that is like a nail in the coffin to patients, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are no cures as Dr. Zeki said, but then there is no cure for diabetes or heart disease either.
“People with asthma, COPD and ACOS deserve better. It requires that we all take responsibility, patients too, but physicians must take their empathy one step further and realize how reversible asthma, COPD and ACOS can be” Louie said.
Willaim Cullifer, executive director of the World Asthma Foundation, said, “This is a fascinating new development in the understanding of asthma and COPD and it’s fantastic to be on the forefront of educating the public and the healthcare community about this issue.”
With their concern and enthusiasm for serving ACOS patients as well as those living with asthma alone or COPD alone, the dedicated physicians are bound to make a difference, hopefully in their lifetimes.
“My hope is to gain a better understanding of this syndrome, which may indeed be on the continuum of airway diseases such as COPD and asthma,” Zeki said. “We hope to garner the support and funding needed to study it given its high prevalence and public health significance.”
“When you get done taking care of the disease, you’re taking care of people,” Louie said.
“We must fight indifference. The only way to do that is to get the word out that we all have much more to achieve together to empower patients with reversible obstructive airway diseases.” Louie said.
The vaccine developed in a model of healthy mice was then optimized in a mouse model of asthma. In this model the vaccine triggers production of specific antibodies and cellular responses specific to Derf1, thus guiding the immune system response to a non-allergenic, protective when the allergen is encountered. The two injections required and administered 3 weeks apart have significantly reduced the airway hyperresponsiveness and levels of inflammatory cytokines that were however present in the lungs of asthmatic mice unvaccinated.
Researchers have therefore designed a technique of DNA-based immunization of the allergenic substance. “Rather than administering allergen extracts repeatedly to reduce the sensitivity, we worked from specific DNA sequences (the allergen) responsible for the allergy. Some studies have shown the therapeutic potential of this strategy but we had to find techniques ensuring feasibility in humans, explains Bruno Pitard, Team Director for Innovative Biotherapy at Institute of the thorax (CNRS / INSERM / University of Nantes). The translation to humans does require treatment to be effective from a low dose of DNA injected.
The researchers first sought to prove the efficacy of this DNA-based immunization against the specific allergen, Derf1 in a relevant animal model developed by the team Bronchial Diseases Allergies and directed by Antoine Magnan. In Europe, Dermatophagoides farinae 1 (Derf1) is indeed a very common allergen carried by the mite Dermatophagoides farinae. More than half of patients allergic to dust mites produce specific IgE antibodies (Derf1) against this substance and disease characteristics
In practice, researchers have used the genetic sequences of interest encoding theallergen Derf1 associated with a nanovector consisting of a synthetic polymer. This DNA sequence, carried by a sort of “molecular taxi” in muscle cells, providing the protein synthesis of the allergen, has modulating the allergic response to dust mites in asthmatic animals (1).
These new results validate the potential of this new nanovector for DNA vaccination, and is under regulatory preclinical development for future clinical trials in humans.
These new results validate the potential of this new nanovector for DNA vaccination, and is under regulatory preclinical development for future clinical trials in humans.
describe an innovative vaccine against one of the most encountered allergens in asthmatic patients . Direct administration of the vaccine into the muscle of a mouse model of asthma significantly reduces the sensitivity to the allergen and the associated inflammatory response.
Researchers have therefore designed a technique of DNA-based immunization of the allergenic substance. “Rather than administering allergen extracts repeatedly to reduce the sensitivity, we worked from specific DNA sequences (the allergen) responsible for the allergy. Some studies have shown the therapeutic potential of this strategy but we had to find techniques ensuring feasibility in humans, explains Bruno Pitard, Team Director for Innovative Biotherapy at Institute of the thorax (CNRS / INSERM / University of Nantes). The translation to humans does require treatment to be effective from a low dose of DNA injected
An Effective Asthma Vaccine by Intramuscular Injection Shows Promise Says Researchers
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease caused by breathing and an abnormal reactivity against allergens from the environment. Among the new directions currently in development, immunization is a promising approach says researchers. In a publication to appear in the journal Human Gene Therapy, researchers from Inserm and CNRS (“Institute of the thorax” CNRS / INSERM / University of Nantes) describe an innovative vaccine against one of the most encountered allergens in asthmatic patients . Direct administration of the vaccine into the muscle of a mouse model of asthma significantly reduces the sensitivity to the allergen and the associated inflammatory response.
Allergic asthma is a chronic respiratory disease affecting 300 million people worldwide. The number of individuals with asthma has doubled over the past decade and nearly 250,000 people die prematurely each year because of this affection. In most cases, asthma is caused by an abnormal reactivity to environmental substances known as allergens. From a physiological point of view, this hypersensitivity results in significant inflammation in the bronchi and bronchioles of individuals. Their ability to breathe properly is
then altered.
Current treatment involves the administration of corticosteroids to treat the symptoms and temporarily suspend the disease without curing it. An alternative treatment and perennial allergic asthma is based on a protocol-specific immunotherapy commonly called “desensitization.” Repeated administration of increasing doses of allergen is to reduce hypersensitivity and reduce symptoms during subsequent exposure. However, the effectiveness of this protocol is limited and highly variable among patients.
Researchers have therefore designed a technique of DNA-based immunization of the allergenic substance. “Rather than administering allergen extracts repeatedly to reduce the sensitivity, we worked from specific DNA sequences (the allergen) responsible for the allergy. Some studies have shown the therapeutic potential of this strategy but we had to find techniques ensuring feasibility in humans, explains Bruno Pitard, Team Director for Innovative Biotherapy at Institute of the thorax (CNRS / INSERM / University of Nantes). The translation to humans does require treatment to be effective from a low dose of DNA injected.
The researchers first sought to prove the efficacy of this DNA-based immunization against the specific allergen, Derf1 in a relevant animal model developed by the team Bronchial Diseases Allergies and directed by Antoine Magnan. In Europe, Dermatophagoides farinae 1 (Derf1) is indeed a very common allergen carried by the mite Dermatophagoides farinae. More than half of patients allergic to dust mites produce specific IgE antibodies (Derf1) against this substance and disease characteristics
In practice, researchers have used the genetic sequences of interest encoding theallergen Derf1 associated with a nanovector consisting of a synthetic polymer. This DNA sequence, carried by a sort of “molecular taxi” in muscle cells, providing the protein synthesis of the allergen, has modulating the allergic response to dust mites in asthmatic animals (1).
The vaccine developed in a model of healthy mice was then optimized in a mouse model of asthma. In this model the vaccinetriggers production of specific antibodies and cellular responses specific to Derf1, thus guiding the immune system response to a non-allergenic, protective when the allergen is encountered. The two injections required and administered 3 weeks apart have significantly reduced the airway hyperresponsiveness and levels of inflammatory cytokines that were however present in the lungs of asthmatic mice unvaccinated.
These new results validate the potential of this new nanovector for DNA vaccination, and is under regulatory preclinical development for future clinical trials in humans.
Discovery that could lead to new treatments for Asthma
Press reports reflect that a Prof Padraic Fallon from Trinity College Dublin and his collaborators in Britain have found a pathway leading to the development of white blood cells that cause allergic inflammation.
Professor Fallon describes his discovery of a novel cell implicated in allergies. The discovery has the potential for new strategies to treat asthma and other allergic diseases. The research findings have just been published in the leading international journal Nature Immunology.
Two years ago he and Dr Andrew McKenzie from Cambridge University announced the discovery of a new white cell, the nuocyte — a previously missing link in the immune pathway that is activated in asthma attacks.
Former NFL Player and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis knows the effects of asthma first hand
In this short video clip, Jerome Bettis talks about EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which will help limit pollution from power plants, making it easier for Americans to breathe cleaner air.
