Page 26 - MemoriaES-Eng

RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

Asthma

Coordinator
MECHANISMS UNDERLYING GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF ASTHMA

Dr. Ma Victoria Del Pozo
Asthma represents a major health problem throughout the world. There has been an

epidemic increase in global prevalence of asthma in the last decades with an estimated
300 million people affected worldwide. This is particularly relevant in the developed in-

dustrialized world, which has noted a tremendous increase in the prevalence of asthma

over the last 50 years. Asthma currently affects 8-12% of the population in the devel-
oped world. Patients affected by this disease are recognized to have a poorer quality

of life, reduced work productivity and school attendance and comorbidities associ-
ated. And, apart from individual suffering, because of their life-threatening of chronic

course, these diseases present a high socioeconomic cost.

Asthma behaves as a spectrum of disorders initiated at different stages throughout life

by a range of environmental factors interacting with a susceptible genetic background.
At its simplest, asthma is divided into allergic (extrinsic) and no allergic (intrinsic)

subtypes, but even within each of these 2 broad categories, there exists consider-

able heterogeneity with respect to underlying mechanisms, clinical and physiological
manifestations, response to treatment, and natural history. The majority of asthma is

associated with TH2-type T-lymphocyte-driven cell recruitment and mediator release
involving mast cells, eosinophils, basophils, and macrophages that contribute to the

chronic, subacute, and acute inflammatory responses.

During the last three decades an improved understanding of the pathophysiology un-

derlying asthma, have led clinicians to shift their focus from managing acute attacks
to achieving asthma control.

Severe asthma accounts for only 10% of patients with asthma, but it accounts for

a considerable portion of the health care costs associated with the disease. Severe
asthma patients are characterized by a poor quality of life, frequent hospitalisations

and high risk of severe systemic side effects resulting from oral glucocorticoid therapy
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and/or high doses of inhaled glucocorticoids. All in all, these characteristics confer a 20
relevant role to this group of patients when it comes to design a research programme T
R
aimed at achieving a better control of a disease that afflicts a progressively increasing PO
E
number of patients.
L R
A
Unmetneedsinasthmaare: Thecausesoftheepidemicincreaseinasthma;Ge- NU
netic susceptibility; The marginally understood interaction between environmental fac- N
A
tors and immune system; Better subclassification of asthma: phenotypes; New agents /
acting on specific pathways in pathogenesis for the use as new therapeutic approach- ES
ER
es; Better preclinical models for translation research; Better approaches in diagnosis B
CI
and prediction of treatment responses and the monitoring of therapeutic effectiveness;
Better tools to analysed complex data obtained; New and better biomarkers.

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