Omalizumab lowers asthma exacerbations, oral corticosteroid intake and blood eosinophils: Results of a 5-YEAR single-centre observational study

Publication date: Available online 7 November 2018Source: Pulmonary Pharmacology & TherapeuticsAuthor(s): Corrado Pelaia, Cecilia Calabrese, Sarah Barbuto, Maria Teresa Busceti, Mariaimmacolata Preianò, Luca Gallelli, Rocco Savino, Alessandro Vatrella, Girolamo PelaiaAbstractOmalizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody which binds to human immunoglobulins E (IgE), thus preventing their interactions with both high affinity and low affinity IgE receptors. Therefore, omalizumab is currently recommended for add-on biological therapy of uncontrolled allergic asthma, mainly characterized by type 2 airway eosinophilic inflammation. Because omalizumab has been the first, and for a long time the only available monoclonal antibody for add-on treatment of type 2 asthma, some long-term studies have been published which provide a clear evidence of the therapeutic effectiveness of the anti-IgE pharmacological strategy.Within this context, the present single-centre observational study refers to 15 patients with severe allergic asthma, treated with omalizumab for at least 5 years at the Respiratory Unit of “Magna Græcia” University Hospital located in Catanzaro, Italy. In these asthmatic subjects we observed significant increases in asthma control test (ACT) score, with respect to baseline (14.60 ± 2.97), after 1 year (19.20 ± 2.98; p < 0.0001) and 5 years (21.67 ± 2.38; p < 0.0001) of add-on treatment with omalizumab. More importantly, omalizumab si...
Source: Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics - Category: Respiratory Medicine Source Type: research