Expert review of clinical immunology
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Expert Rev Clin Immunol · Feb 2017
ReviewBiologics targeting IL-5, IL-4 or IL-13 for the treatment of asthma - an update.
The development of monoclonal antibody-based biologics targeted at inhibition of the Th2 cytokines IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 represent potentially effective treatments for patients with the glucocorticoid refractory eosinophilic asthma phenotype. Areas covered: Asthma exhibits marked heterogeneity both clinically and at the molecular phenotypic level, requiring specifically targeted treatments to block the key pathways of the disease. ⋯ This narrative review is based on English-language original articles in PubMed or Med-Line that reported significant clinical findings published in the last two years on the evidence demonstrating the effectiveness or otherwise of the targeting of IL-4, IL-5, or IL-13 in carefully selected patients with severe refractory asthma. Expert commentary: The use of a baseline peripheral blood eosinophilia as a simple reproducible biomarker to identify patients with particular sub-phenotypes of asthma to guide the effective use of biologic therapy represents a significant step forward.