Novel drugs targeting a major asthma trigger inhibit acute allergen challenge in experimental models

What is it about?

Historically, the drug treatment of allergic asthma has relied on medicines which primarily relieve symptoms. The development of new and improved medicines has proved to be a considerable challenge because the symptoms are caused by many inflammatory mechanisms and mediators. The concept of treating a root cause trigger of allergic asthma has been mooted for a number of years, but the barrier to realising this vision has been the lack of a drug target against which novel inhibitors can be designed. Recent progress in understanding the repertoire of house dust mite allergens and their bioactivities, together with the renaissance in innate immunity, has transformed this situation and new drugs called allergen delivery inhibitors (ADIs) have been designed to exploit this progress. This paper describes surprising effects of ADIs in acute allergen challenge models and more.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Allergic asthma and related diseases have a significant global impact on individuals and society as a whole. Despite the availability of safe and efficacious medicines, these chronic conditions still have many unmet needs. This paper provides insight into the first small-molecule approach designed to deal with the trigger of disease rather than merely attempting to limit its symptoms. This represents a major shift in approach to thinking about future therapies for these diseases.