A team of researchers has been developing a vaccine once morest allergic asthma for several years. They announced on Tuesday that they have taken a new step that paves the way for a clinical trial.
Towards a vaccine once morest allergic asthma? Scientists from Inserm, CNRS and Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier University within the Infinity laboratory, the Institut Pasteur and the French company NEOVACS are developing a new vaccine once morest this disease.
Four million people are affected by asthma in France, according to Public Health France, a public body dependent on the Ministry of Health. As reminded a statement of Inserm dated this Tuesday, 50% of cases are allergic. This chronic bronchial disease causes attacks of respiratory discomfort which, in the case of allergic asthma, are triggered by exposure to different allergens (mites, pollen, mould, etc.).
Constraining treatments
Medicines exist to control asthma. But “when conventional treatments do not work, we have to resort to new treatments called biotherapies, which are done by injection”, explains BFMTV allergist Madeleine Epstein. “It’s a bit constraining.”
This is why a team of French researchers began work several years ago to develop a vaccine once morest allergic asthma. They unveiled the latest advance in February, with a study published in the scientific journal Allergy.
In its press release, Inserm explains that the teams “have shown that this vaccine was effective in producing antibodies capable of neutralizing key human immune proteins in the onset of allergic asthma, the cytokines IL-4 and IL-13” .
Less inflamed bronchi in mice
To reach this conclusion, the researchers injected their vaccine into mice with dust mite allergic asthma. They found a “significant” antibody response and an effect on asthma symptoms.
This notably takes the form of “much less inflamed bronchi” in vaccinated mice, described to BFMTV Laurent Reber, research director at Inserm, head of the team working on this project.
“It is a therapeutic vaccine, that is to say a vaccine that will target patients who already have asthma, and severe asthma,” he adds.
Beyond asthma, the tested vaccine offers “a prospect of reducing allergy symptoms linked to other factors, since this vaccine targets molecules involved in different allergies”, says Pierre Bruhns, head of the unit. Antibodies in therapy and pathology at the Institut Pasteur, in the Inserm press release. The next step: human trials, currently under discussion.