Assessing the current and future impact of biologics on pediatric asthma

Researchers have performed a comprehensive review of the current state and future potential of using biologic medications to treat asthma in children. They evaluated a broad scope of approved biologics, the available information for each, and whether predictive or monitoring biomarkers are available for each biologic drug, presenting that information in an article published in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology.

In the article entitled “Current State and Future of Biologic Therapies in the Treatment of Asthma in Children,” Elissa Abrams, MD and Allan Becker MD, University of Manitoba, and Stanley Szefler, MD, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, state that more personalized approaches to asthma therapy in children are opening the door to biologic therapies and in particular those targeting the “allergic,” T-helper (2) pathway.

The researchers reviewed at least a dozen biologics, including the anti-IgE medications Omalizumab and Ligelizumab, the anti-IL-5 medications Mepolizumab, Reslizumab, and Benralizumab, and anti-IL4 and anti-IL3 medications. Future goals focus on using these biologic therapies to decrease the burden of asthma severity in children and moving toward disease modification and prevention strategies that can prevent and even improve pulmonary function through the reversal of airway remodeling.

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