News & Events

Effectiveness of antibiotic drug in asthma attacks

14 September 2011

New research funded by the EME programme is to assess the effectiveness of a well-tolerated antibiotic drug in addition to standard treatment for adults suffering from asthma attacks.

Acute attacks (exacerbations) of asthma are common, cause a great deal of suffering and occasionally death. Viral respiratory infections often cause asthma attacks and bacterial respiratory pathogens (disease producing micro-organisms) have also been associated with asthma attacks. However, current guidelines recommend antibiotic therapy should not routinely be given as the role for bacteria is uncertain.

The researchers, led by Professor Sebastian Johnston of Imperial College London have previously found that when the antibiotic Telithromycin was used to treat an asthma attack there was a significantly greater reduction in symptoms and an improvement in lung function when compared with placebo. Unfortunately Telithromycin cannot be used to treat asthma attacks as it was later found to have side effects that limit its use to life threatening infections. The drug Azithromycin, which is similar to Telithromycin, is a safe alternative antibiotic and has been used for many years in the treatment of respiratory disease and might be of benefit in asthma attack.

The team will conduct a randomised trial on 380 adults across 10 UK hospitals who come into hospital with an asthma attack. They will be randomised to receive either Azithromycin or a placebo (double-blind).

The effectiveness of the drug will be assessed by differences in lung function tests, symptom diary cards, and quality of life questionnaires completed by the patient. Differences will be compared at 5 and 10 days after receiving the treatment, and statistics will be used to determine if these changes are significant.

Professor Johnston commented; "Current treatments for asthma attacks are not very effective and new and better treatments are urgently needed. This data will provide a clear evidence base for future guidelines. We hope this work will also help identify who may benefit most from such treatment."

In addition, the team will look into how frequently bacteria are detected in asthma attacks and the mechanisms by which antibiotics improve recovery from an asthma attack, in order to have a clearer understanding of how exacerbations are triggered and therefore how to treat them.

The full project details can be viewed on the project page.