Allergen Delivery Inhibitors: towards a new generation of asthma treatment
Asthma and allergic conditions such as rhinitis, conjunctivitis and dermatitis are escalating problems that affect around 300 million people globally. In the UK, 5.2 million adults and 1.1 million children currently receive treatment for asthma, creating a significant social and healthcare burden for the NHS. Asthma affects approximately one in 12 adults and one in eight children in the UK.
Professor Robinson (St George’s, University of London) and David Garrod (the University of Manchester) are committed to alleviating this problem developing a new drug that targets the condition’s “trigger” before symptoms show. The trigger is something in the person's environment that elicits a strong response in their airways. It causes the smooth muscle surrounding the myriad of delicate airways branching throughout the lungs to constrict and inflammation to develop in the lungs. The result is a series of symptoms that people with asthma know all too well: wheezing, shortness of breath and a tightening of their chest.
To target this trigger, Professors Robinson and Garrod are developing a new series of drugs known as Allergen Delivery Inhibitors (ADIs).
The first ADI drug being developed targets house dust mites, globally one of the commonest causes of domestic allergy and a key trigger of asthma attacks. Dust mites excrete particles, amongst which are powerful enzymes that, when inhaled, can cause an inappropriate immune reaction in people who are prone to allergy, causing damage to the lining of the airways. The ADIs bind to the dust mite particles and block their enzymatic activity. Experimentally, these inhibitors reduce the intensity of reactions in established allergy and can even prevent allergy from occurring.
The £6million project is funded by the Wellcome Trust’s Seeding Drug Discovery initiative, which is dedicated to supporting the early stages of drug discovery.
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