Researchers at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, have developed a successful vaccine to treat severe asthma in mice.
In collaboration with NEOVACS, a French biotechnology company, the team created a vaccine that generates antibodies against the inflammatory molecules known to cause severe asthma a lung condition which can cause breathing difficulties.
Currently, inhalers are used to control mild asthma, but this treatment is not enough in cases of severe asthma, where monoclonal antibodies are needed, however these are costly and require long-term or even life-long injections.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, show the new vaccine could create long-term protection against allergic asthma, reducing the severity of its symptoms and improving the quality of life of patients.
"The idea is to set up in the future a preventive approach for populations at risk of developing a severe form of asthma," Laurent Guilleminault, of the Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases, which was also involved in the study, told La Dépêche (in French).