Summary
Recent renewed interest in a failed anti-cytokine approach for asthma.
Analysis
Recent renewed interest in anti-IL-5 for asthma is a puzzle.
Previous animal studies suggest that this approach is successful.
However, previous studies of anti-IL-5 antibody suggested that although it was effective in reducing eosinophilia in humans, it had no effect on any clinical parameter of asthma control. There were issues with the antibody used as it did not suppress completely the airway eosinophil count. This demonstrates the problem of animal to human translation and the potential limitation of single anti-cytokine stategies in asthma- probably reflecting the fact that asthma is a very heterogeneous disease!
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
