The effect of intravenous administration of a chimeric anti-IgE antibody on serum IgE levels in atopic subjects: efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics.

CGP 51901 is a non-anaphylactogenic mouse/human chimeric anti-human IgE antibody that binds to free IgE and surface IgE of IgE-expressing B cells but not to IgE bound to high affinity IgE receptors (Fc epsilonR1) on mast cells and basophils or low affinity IgE receptors (Fc epsilonR2) on other cells. A phase 1 double-blind, placebo-controlled, single dose study with doses of 3, 10, 30, and 100 mg of CGP 51901 was conducted in 33 pollen-sensitive subjects who had raised levels of serum IgE and received either intravenous CGP 51901 or placebo. The administration of CGP 51901 was well tolerated and resulted in a decrease of serum free IgE levels in a dose-dependent manner, with suppression after 100 mg of CGP 51901 reaching > 96%.

The Asthma Impact Record (AIR) index: a rating scale to evaluate the quality of life of asthmatic patients in France.

Asthma is a chronic disease, which affects patients' daily lives. The goal of this study was the development of a disease-specific scale to evaluate quality of life in asthmatic patients in France: The Asthma Impact Record Index (AIR Index). The study was conducted with the participation of 486 asthmatic patients using the following steps: 1) selection of dichotomous items; 2) reduction of the number of items; 3) study of reproducibility of the questionnaire; 4) weighting of items; 5) study of the reliability and validity of the final version of the AIR Index.

Functional and binding characteristics of long-acting beta 2-agonists in lung and heart.

Salmeterol and formoterol, two new long-acting beta 2-agonists were equipotent (values of negative log molar concentration eliciting half-maximal effect [pD2] 9.2 +/- 0.03 and 8.

Role of 1,2-sn diacylglycerol in airway smooth muscle stimulated by carbachol.

Activation of muscarinic receptors in airway smooth muscle leads to breakdown of membrane polyphosphoinositides. In agreement with others, we show here that muscarinic stimulation elicits inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate formation. In addition, we show that carbachol also elicits total diacylglycerol and 1,2-sn diacylglycerol accumulation in a specific and dose-dependent manner (EC50 values: 2.

The effect of intravenous phenylephrine on airway calibre in asthma.

Tracheobronchial vasoconstriction and subsequent reduction of airway wall thickness due to the alpha 1-agonist methoxamine, might be responsible for prevention of exercise-induced asthma, and reduction of bronchial hyperresponsiveness to methacholine increase in exercise performance in patients with impaired left ventricular function. Since bronchial wall oedema plays an important role in asthma, we have now investigated the bronchial response to the intravenously administered alpha 1-agonist, phenylephrine, in asthma of various severity. Increasing noncumulative intravenous phenylephrine doses (100 to 600 micrograms) were injected in 18 asthmatic subjects (three groups: mild asthma, mild asthma with recent acute attack, severe obstructive asthma) and in 11 control subjects.