BRONCHIAL ASTHMA: AN UNMET DISEASE

Asthma is a chronic obstructive disease of airways affecting bronchi, resulting in bronchoconstriction, tightening of chest and airway inflammation. Asthma remains a disease with clearly unsatisfactory therapeutics. With the mounting evidence in support of asthma being an inflammatory illness, anti-inflammatory agents have now become prerequisite for the long-term management of asthma. Along with anti-inflammatory agents, there is a need to search for other effective therapies to treat every aspect of the disease. The present review gives an insight of various approaches available for the management of asthma. A number of drugs are available with chemical diversity as on date for the treatment of bronchospasmolytic conditions.

The different sites or receptor involved in this intervention is adrenoceptor, steroid receptor, phosphodiesterase and many more. The agents such as β-agonist, antihistaminics, anticholinergics and inhalation steroids, only treat symptoms and do not cure the underlying inflammation. On the other hand, adenosine receptor modulators, selective PDE4 inhibitors, leukotriene modifiers and lipoxygenase inhibitors represents other therapeutic interventions with more targeted control by acting on different parts of immune system and the inflammatory processes. A combination of both of these approaches has been found to improve asthma control with a reduced dose of steroids. With many representative agents of each of these potential therapeutic targets, undergoing clinical studies, successful development of novel therapeutic agents in this field, is not remote. There is a need to understand completely about the phenotype of asthmatic patients so that each patient will receive proper therapy.