Landmark asthma vaccine looks to human trials

Asthma is a very heterogeneous disease, so beyond treating an acute flare-up with inhaled corticosteroids there are big challenges in developing a universal treatment.

A characteristic response seen in about 50 percent of asthma patients is excessive production in the airways of two inflammatory molecules, IL-4 and IL-13. Blocking the actions of these two inflammatory molecules has been shown to decrease the rate of severe asthma flare-ups and improve lung function. In fact, a treatment called dupilumab has been developed to do exactly that.

Dupilumab is a monoclonal antibody treatment designed to block IL-4 and IL-13 signaling. It was approved for use in moderate-to-severe cases of asthma in 2018 but it suffers several limitations as a long-term therapy. Monoclonal antibody therapies are notoriously expensive, costing thousands of dollars per dose and need consistent dosing to treat chronic disease.

The new research describes the development of a vaccine designed to induce the body to make its own antibodies against IL-4 and IL-13 molecules. The researchers designed what is called a conjugate vaccine, which binds a weak antigen with a strong antigen in order to induce antibodies against the weak antigen. In this instance the experimental asthma vaccine couples the two IL molecules with a non-pathogenic toxin.

In a recently published study the researchers describe several successful preclinical tests of this asthma vaccine. Using mouse models of asthma the researchers demonstrate the vaccine produces antibodies against IL-4 and IL-13 up to a year after immunization. The study also showed the vaccine reducing asthma symptoms in experiments modeling acute allergic flare-ups.