Respiratory - Asthma

ASTHMA

Increasing evidence points toward a key role of mast cells in the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of asthma increasing the need to develop effective mast cell targeted therapies.

Mast cells play a key role in regulating mucous gland secretion: mast cells infiltrate the airway mucous glands in patients with asthma correlating with the amount of mucus obstructing the airway lumen. Further, this close approximation of increased number of activated mast cells within the airway smooth muscle cells leads to disordered smooth muscle function. In conclusion, mast cells play a key role in chronic asthma, increased airway responsiveness and tissue remodeling and are relatively resistant to steroid therapy. 
 
Targeting mast cells could help not only to reduce symptoms but also to influence the natural course of the disease. There is a continued high need for novel and potent drugs that inhibit pathological mast cell mediator release in asthmatic airways, such as our novel small molecule MCS1, that in addition can be administered in convenient und individual oral application resulting in higher patient compliance.
 
Asthma impacts approximately 446 million people worldwide and has an increasing estimated prevalence of patients of about 48 million in the major markets.
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Scientific Sources
  1. Cecilia Andersson, Ellen Tufvesson, Zuzana Diamant, and Leif Bjermer, revisiting the role of the mast cell in asthma, curr opin pulm med 2016, 22:10–17
  2. Bradding, P. /DM, Walls, A.P. / PhD, Holgate, S.T. / MD, the role of the mast cell in the pathophysiology of asthma, Leicester and Southampton, UK; Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, June 2006 Volume 117, Issue 6, Pages 1277–1284
  3. Laurent L. Reber and John V. Fahy, Mast cells in asthma: Biomarker and therapeutic target, Eur Respir J 2016; 47: 1040–1042
  4. Glenn Cruse, Peter Bradding, Mast cells in airway diseases and interstitial lung disease, European Journal of pharmacology 778 (2016) 125–138
  5. Stephen J. Galli, Mast cells and KIT as potential therapeutic targets in severe asthma, the new England journal of medicine 376, 20, May 18, 2017