Targeting interleukins to treat severe asthma.

Severe asthma is thought to be a heterogeneous disease with different phenotypes predicated primarily on the nature of the inflammatory cell infiltrate and response to corticosteroid therapy. This group of patients often has refractory disease with an associated increase in morbidity and mortality, and there remains a need for better therapies for severe asthmatics. Inflammatory changes in asthma are driven by immune mechanisms, within which interleukins play an integral role. Interleukins are cell-signaling cytokines that are produced by a variety of cells, predominantly T cells. Knowledge about their actions has improved the understanding of the pathogenesis of asthma and provided potential targets for novel therapies. To date, this has not translated into clinical use. However, there are ongoing clinical trials that use monoclonal antibodies for various interleukins, some of which have shown to be promising in Phase II studies.