Stratified approaches for using biomarkers in phenotyping for the management of severe asthma in India.

Abstract

Various respiratory societies including the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), European Respiratory Society (ERS) and American Thoracic Society (ATS) define severe asthma as asthma that requires or remains uncontrolled despite treatment with systemic corticosteroids or high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus another controller such as long acting beta agonist. The management of asthma as an entity is not straightforward due to inter-individual variability in assessment parameters. With the advent of science, targeted therapies are on the emergence for management of severe asthma. A biomarker can be used as a surrogate to phenotype a patient as well as to measure the response to therapy with any drug. Biomarkers have been critical for studies of disease pathogenesis and the development of new therapies in severe asthma. From a resource constraint perspective like countries in India, it is imperative to use biomarkers that are easily available are affordable cost. Choosing an ideal biomarkers is also important from a perspective of choosing a particular therapy. The cost associated with the biologicals is high and it is imperative to gauge the treatment effectiveness with the therapy at the earliest considering the out of pocket spends of the patients.