Anti-Inflammatory Treatment of Asthma

Bronchial asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways affecting individuals of all ages. Pharmacotherapy relies on bronchodilator drugs, usually in combination with inhaled corticosteroids, with the clinical aim to reduce symptoms, improve lung function, and prevent exacerbations. While these principle approaches, together with measures of allergen avoidance and secondary prevention, improve and control the disease in a majority of patients, a significant number of asthmatics remain symptomatic, especially in severe disease. Furthermore, there is increased recognition of a large variability of asthma phenotypes, with different clinical course but also with a variety of distinct inflammatory mechanisms. This has led to the development of novel anti-inflammatory medicines, some of which target specific inflammatory pathways in asthma with high selectivity. These novel drugs will hopefully benefit those patients with more severe disease and underlying inflammation that is not adequately responding to standard asthma therapies.