Severe asthma: When to resort to biological agents

Abstract

Asthmatic children usually reach good control of symptoms with a low-medium dose of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), but approximately 5% has severe asthma. In this group of patients, when the diagnosis of severe asthma is confirmed, biologic agents have to be considered when there is no control of the symptoms despite conventional treatment with controllers according to guidelines. At present, the only biologic agent available in clinical practice for severe asthma treatment in children (6-18 years) is omalizumab. Mepolizumab has been recently approved by EMA for pediatric use. Reslizumab is a monoclonal antibody anti–IL-5 that has been approved for severe eosinophilic asthma treatment only in patients >12 years. Because of their action on specific molecular targets of the asthma pathophysiology, biologic agents are very promising therapeutic options for severe asthmatic patients based on individual endotypes.