Does NSAID exacerbated respiratory disease (N-ERD) accompanying severe asthma affect biological treatment response? Efficacy of omalizumab and mepolizumab in N-ERD.

Introduction: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID)-exacerbated respiratory disease (N-ERD) accompanies severe asthma in about 15% of the patients and may adversely affect the prognosis. Omalizumab and mepolizumab are biologics used in patients with severe asthma. The objective of this study is to assess the respiratory improvements, after these biologics in severe asthmatic patients stratifed by the presence of concomitant Non-erosive reflux disease (N-ERD) and the effect of omalizumab and mepolizumab in severe asthmatics with N-ERD.

Material & Method: The population of this three-center, retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study comprised patients using omalizumab or mepolizumab for severe asthma. Patients administered these biologics for severe asthma were comparatively analyzed for the presence of N-ERD; asthma control test (ACT) scores, number of attacks, and the changes in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were assessed. Subsequently, patients who were found to have N-ERD were analyzed using visual analog scale (VAS) in terms of the changes in their nasal parameters (ie, nasal obstruction, facial pain, anterior-posterior rhinitis, and hyposmia), according to whether they use omalizumab or mepolizumab.

Results: The use of biologics resulted in a significant improvement in ACT and FEV1 and reduction in attacks in 28 severe asthmatics with N-ERD and 125 without N-ERD. Although both biologics resulted in a significant improvement in the respiratory parameters, omalizumab treatment resulted in a significant improvement in nasal parameters except hyposmia, mepolizumab treatment resulted in a significant improvement only in posterior rhinitis, and nasal obstruction among the nasal parameters.

Conclusion: This study is the first to address both omalizumab and mepolizumab treatments in severe asthmatics with N-ERD. The improvement in nasal parameters was more pronounced in patients who were administered omalizumab. Large-scale randomized controlled studies are needed to corroborate the findings of this study.