Comparative features of Asthma with frequent or infrequent exacerbations: A longitudinal study of retrospective and prospective events.

Background: A "frequent exacerbator phenotype" has been described, mostly in the population of patients with severe asthma. Further data are needed on such exacerbation-prone patients in milder asthma.

Aim: To compare the characteristics of frequent and nonfrequent exacerbators in asthma of different severities and to assess the stability of the exacerbator status.

Comparative Clinical, Physiological, and Inflammatory Characteristics of Elderly Subjects With or Without Asthma and Young Subjects With Asthma.

Background: Asthma seems to present in the elderly as a specific phenotype that remains to be further described. In this prospective observational study, we aimed to assess the multidimensional aspects of asthma in the elderly.

Methods: In young (18 to 35 years old) subjects with mild to moderate asthma and elderly subjects (aged ≥60 years) either with or without mild to moderate asthma, we compared asthma control, health care and medication use, lung function, markers of airway and systemic inflammation, and adherence to therapy.

A nonsteroidal glucocorticoid receptor agonist inhibits allergen-induced late asthmatic responses.

Rationale: Effective antiinflammatory therapies are needed for the treatment of asthma, but preferably without the systemic adverse effects of glucocorticosteroids.

Objectives: We evaluated the effect of an inhaled nonsteroidal glucocorticoid receptor agonist, AZD5423, on allergen-induced responses.

Methods: Twenty subjects with mild allergic asthma were randomized to receive 7 days of treatment with nebulized AZD5423 (75 or 300 μg) once daily, budesonide 200 μg twice daily via Turbuhaler, or placebo in a double-blind, four-period, crossover design study.

Roflumilast attenuates allergen-induced inflammation in mild asthmatic subjects.

Background: Phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitors increase intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), leading to regulation of inflammatory cell functions. Roflumilast is a potent and targeted PDE4 inhibitor. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of roflumilast on bronchoconstriction, airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), and airway inflammation in mild asthmatic patients undergoing allergen inhalation challenge.

Effects of interleukin-13 blockade on allergen-induced airway responses in mild atopic asthma.

Rationale: Extensive evidence in animal models supports a role for IL-13 in the pathobiology of asthma. IMA-638 and IMA-026 are fully humanized IgG(1) antibodies that bind to different epitopes and neutralize IL-13 bioactivity.

Objectives: We hypothesized that anti-IL-13 treatment would inhibit allergen-induced late-phase asthmatic responses, airway hyperresponsiveness, and inflammation in subjects with asthma.

Protocol: influence of budesonide and budesonide/formoterol on asthma control in smoking asthmatic adults.

Rationale: A reduced response to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) has been reported in smoking asthmatic patients but the effects of other medications remain to be evaluated in this population.

Subjects And Methods: We evaluated the effects of a combined therapy of budesonide 200 microg twice daily and formoterol 6 microg twice daily compared with budesonide 200 microg twice daily alone on asthma control questionnaire (ACQ), asthma quality of life questionnaire (AQLQ- Juniper), pulmonary function and airway inflammation, in a cross-over randomized double-blind study with treatment periods of two months separated by a one-month wash-out period. Seventeen smoking and 22 non-smoking patients not using inhaled corticosteroids with slightly uncontrolled mild asthma completed the study.

Antisense therapy against CCR3 and the common beta chain attenuates allergen-induced eosinophilic responses.

Rationale: The drug product TPI ASM8 contains two modified phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides designed to inhibit allergic inflammation by down-regulating human CCR3 and the common beta chain (beta(c)) of IL-3, IL-5, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptors.

Objectives: This study examined the effects of inhaled TPI ASM8 on sputum cellular influx, CCR3 and beta(c) mRNA and protein levels, and the airway physiologic response after inhaled allergen.

Methods: Seventeen subjects with mild atopic asthma were randomized in a crossover study to inhale 1,500 microg TPI ASM8 or placebo by nebulizer, once daily for 4 days.

Smoking and asthma: clinical and radiologic features, lung function, and airway inflammation.

Smoking may influence the type of airway inflammation observed in asthma and its response to therapy. More studies are needed on how smoking-induced changes in lung function/structure and airway inflammation may result in a change in clinical expression. We compared clinical, physiologic, radiologic, and airway inflammatory features of 22 smoking asthma patients (cigarette smoking history, 14.

Effect of low-dose ciclesonide on allergen-induced responses in subjects with mild allergic asthma.

Background: Inhalation of allergens by sensitized patients with asthma induces reversible airway obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, and eosinophilic airway inflammation. Attenuation of allergen-induced bronchoconstriction and inflammation has been used to examine the efficacy of therapeutic agents such as inhaled corticosteroids in asthma. Ciclesonide, a nonhalogenated inhaled corticosteroid being developed for the treatment of persistent asthma, remains inactive until cleaved by esterases in the lung.

Metalloproteinase-9 in induced sputum correlates with the severity of the late allergen-induced asthmatic response.

Background: Asthma is characterized by airway inflammation and remodeling in which matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP) play an important role. Allergen exposure activates the inflammatory/repair process in sensitized subjects. Induced-sputum analysis is a non-invasive method that allows the assessment of changes in inflammatory and remodeling mediators implicated in asthma.