New treatment a breath of fresh air

a breath of fresh air

Just over five years ago, when Dr Jodie Simpson and a team of researchers in the respiratory team at the Hunter Medical Research Institute began to plan their now-internationally lauded asthma treatment study, they were fighting an uphill battle to find anyone who even accepted there was more than one type of the condition.

Acknowledgement of the asthma subtypes was fundamental to the proposed research and a bridge that had to be crossed before they could move on to the randomised control study Simpson wanted to conduct.

Today, it is a medical fact that asthmatics fall into two categories: those who carry increased levels of cells (called eosinophils) responsible for inflammation of the airways; and those with normal eosinophil levels.

“A lot of people believed this about asthma but it was not widely accepted among the scientific community,” Simpson said.

Once several findings supporting the theory were published, including Simpson’s own research, the way was cleared for the team to proceed. The ensuing research, published in 2008 in the prestigious American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, showed a common antibiotic could improve the quality of life for some patients with asthma and potentially deliver considerable healthcare savings.

The team looked at 45 people with difficult asthma who were taking high daily maintenance doses of inhaled corticosteroids. In addition to their regular preventative, participants were also given either an antibiotic or placebo medication.

At the end of the eight-week study, results indicated treatment with the antibiotic significantly reduced inflammation in the airways and improved quality of life – particularly for patients with non-eosinophilic asthma.

Simpson said the finding was significant because five to ten per cent of asthma cases were considered difficult to manage and these cases accounted for 50 per cent of asthma treatment and associated healthcare costs.

Dr Simpson works in the University of Newcastle’s Priority Research Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Diseases, and in collaboration with the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). Her research is supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and HMRI, including sponsorship from the Lions Club of Adamstown, Tomago Aluminium and other corporate and community donations to HMRI.