Tralokinumab for uncontrolled asthma

Introduction: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways mainly related to allergen exposure, in which various cytokine-specific pathways interact among themselves to promote IgE hyperproduction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, eosinophil local recruitment and airways remodeling. IL-13 is known for its prominent pathogenic role in this disease and therapeutic blocking approaches are underway. Areas covered: Anti-IL-13 antibodies are currently investigated in clinical studies in uncontrolled asthma. Tralokinumab is a human IgG4 anti IL-13 antibody which was recently evaluated in a Phase II study demonstrating the maximal efficacy in a subset of asthma patients characterized by the highest sputum IL-13 levels. The results of this study are discussed in this paper. Expert opinion: The IL-13 blockade with various therapeutic approaches such as tralokinumab has the potential to improve the asthma control in patients subsets in whom the blocked cytokine is demonstrated to be overexpressed.