Posts Tagged ‘hay fever’

A potential drug has been identified for providing relief to individuals suffering with hay fever and asthma and will soon underwent trials in humans.

RPL554, the drug, possess the ability of treating respiratory diseases and its use does not lead to side effects that are common with present-day medications.

From News-Medical.Net:

Dr. Page who is a professor of pharmacology at King’s College London, says RPL554 is a single molecule that does both jobs and should have fewer side effect profile and he says they are cautiously optimistic that they can develop a treatment where one puff will last all day.

Current treatments for asthma and hay fever sufferers are beta-agonists, which open up the airways, and inhaled steroids, which dampen down the inflammation that causes irritation – they are either taken together or singly.

But they have serious side effects, including possible harm to the cardiovascular system and the ’shakes’ reported by many patients from excess use.

Experts say little progress has been made recently with alternative, effective and practical treatment options for a wide range of people with asthma and hay fever and by combining anti-inflammatory properties and the ability to overcome airway narrowing in a single long-lasting dose via the nose, RPL554 could offer real hope of a significant breakthrough.

Dr. Clive Page, chairman of Verona Pharma, which is presently developing the treatment, said the company is examining other novel compounds for tackling respiratory ailments on the lines of anti-inflammatory substances that are found in starfish and a treatment for coughs.

A new drug for curing asthma patients, RPL554, which faced trials at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in the Netherlands on more than 60 people in 2008, is now moving to the stage of further trials during 2009.

This drug, which is considered by many as nothing but a wonder drug, is likely to prove its worth in treating more than 1.5 million people in the United States alone suffering from asthma and hay fever. It is expected that drug will reach the market in the next three to four years after evaluating its safety and efficacy.

From News-Medical.Net:

Current treatments for asthma and hay fever sufferers are beta-agonists, which open up the airways, and inhaled steroids, which dampen down the inflammation that causes irritation – they are either taken together or singly.

But they have serious side effects, including possible harm to the cardiovascular system and the ’shakes’ reported by many patients from excess use.

Experts say little progress has been made recently with alternative, effective and practical treatment options for a wide range of people with asthma and hay fever and by combining anti-inflammatory properties and the ability to overcome airway narrowing in a single long-lasting dose via the nose, RPL554 could offer real hope of a significant breakthrough.

It was remarked by some researchers that this once-a-day asthma treatment option will be nothing less than a first-line therapy for treating patients suffering from hay fever and asthma. The discovery of this drug would mean that asthmatic patients will now require only a single needle puff from their “lifesaving” inhalers to stop the symptoms.

A team of researchers from the University of Chicago found out that Fluticasone propionate (Flonase), a corticosteroid nasal spray is better than a a combination of popular anti-allergy drugs loratidine (Claritin) and montelukast (Singulair) for treating seasonal allergies.

Inflammation measures were found to be considerably better for patients with hay fever and administered with fluticasone propionate than the combination of two anti-allergy drugs, according to Robert Naclerio, M.D., professor of surgery at the University of Chicago and director of the study.

The study was presented at the 58th annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:

“Because of the effect on inflammation, we prefer fluticasone,” he added, “but for patients, the choice may come down to cost and whether they would prefer a pill or a spray.”

Since one out of five people in the United States suffers from seasonal allergies, such preferences have financial implications. Antihistamines are prescribed three times as often, even though intranasal corticosteroids are less expensive than the non-sedating antihistamines. Combining loratidine with montelukast increases the cost difference.

A daily dose of Claritin, the leading antihistamine, costs $2.92 at the University of Chicago Hospitals pharmacy. Singulair, which works by blocking leukotrienes — substances that trigger inflammation — costs $4 per day. Flonase, the leading prescription nasal spray, costs $2.21 per day.

It was suggested during the study that use of nasal sprays result in less of patients’ nasal passages and those administered with steroid nasal sprays displayed signs of minimal side effects and lower levels of eosinophil cationic protein, an inflammation sign. It was remarked by Naclerio that fluticasone truly shows its worth because of its unmatched benefits and low cost.