The research team at King’s College London has said that they have found the first new treatment for asthma attacks after 50 years.
Benralizumab is the medication that has been discovered; research shows that 2 million people in the UK have been cured.
Researchers said that Benralizumab is already used in the most severe cases, but the latest research suggests it could be used routinely for around two million attacks in the UK each year for a patient to be cured.
The research team at King’s College London said the drug was a “game-changer” that could “revolutionize” care.
According to King’s College London Professor Mona Bafadhel, the injection reduces part of the immune system that can go into overdrive in flare-ups of both asthma and a lung condition called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
“Now that we know there are many patterns of inflammation, we can act more strategically and provide the appropriate medicine to the right patient at the right time,” Bafadhel highlighted.
Benralizumab targets eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, which cause inflammation and damage in the lungs, contributing to half of asthma attacks and a third of COPD flare-ups. If these attacks involving difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness cannot be controlled with regular inhalers, doctors currently prescribe steroids. A study monitored 158 patients for three months after treatment for flare-ups.
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine study reported a 74% treatment failure rate when taking steroids versus 45% with the new therapy. People treated with the new therapy were less likely to be admitted to the hospital, require another round of treatment, or die.
Prof. Bafadhel emphasized that implementing a two million-attack treatment system could benefit many people, a significant increase from the current 50-year treatment pattern, and revolutionize the way people are treated when they are unwell.
According to researchers at the College, Benralizumab is not yet ready for widespread use. It will still take a larger experiment, beginning in 2025 and lasting for two years, to determine any benefit. That study will also have to consider cost-effectiveness, as monoclonal antibodies like this treatment are costly medications.
Dr. Sanjay Ramakrishnan from the University of Oxford believes the current work demonstrates significant potential, despite COPD being a leading global death cause in the 20th century.
