Interferon‐lambda as a new approach for treatment of allergic asthma?

Asthma is a heterogeneous inflammatory disorder of the lung caused principally by sensitization and exposure to an allergen, but also influenced by environmental factors such as cigarette smoking, stress, exercise, pollution, respiratory virus infection and certain respiratory bacteria. The cardinal features of asthma include wheeze, shortness of breath, variable and reversible airway obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, mucus production and airway inflammation. Allergic asthma is the most common form of asthma, caused by sensitization and exposure via the airways to a number of innocuous allergens including proteins from house dust mites, animals, moulds and tree and grass pollens. Sensitization and challenge elicits a response from Th2 helper T cells and, through the actions of interleukin (IL)‐4, IL‐5 and IL‐13, IgE production, airway eosinophilia, mast cell activation, mucus production and airway hyperreactivity ensues. Mild asthma can be well controlled by inhaled steroid therapies or inhaled steroid‐β2 agonist combinations. However, in moderate to severe asthma, adequate control frequently cannot be achieved with these therapies, and new and better treatments are therefore required.Asthma exacerbations are acute attacks of asthma when an otherwise ‘stable’ asthmatic experiences a rapid increase in symptoms accompanied by decreased lung function, most often precipitated by a respiratory virus infection. Asthma exacerbations are responsible for the vast majority of the morbidity and mortality associated with asthma; and represent an area not well controlled by current therapy regimes. The search for new asthma therapies remains an intensive area of interest, and the last 10 years have seen a number of novel therapeutic strategies applied to both stable asthma and asthma exacerbations, including new formulations of steroids and β2 agonists, anti‐Th2 cytokine therapies, anti‐TNF‐α therapies, etc.The work by Koltsida et al (Koltsida et al, 2011) in this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine is of outstanding importance in this regard for …