Asthma is a respiratory condition that affects 26.5 million Americans and around 300 million people worldwide. It is characterized by chronic inflammation in the lung airways that results in chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath or coughing.
This tightening usually occurs when the involuntary muscles in the lung airways contract due to exposure to allergens, fumes, second-hand smoke or toxins. Treatment typically involves avoiding allergens and using remedies such as bronchodilators and anti-inflammatory agents. More specifically, drugs that can stimulate the β2-adrenergic receptors (β2AR) are instrumental in relaxing the lung airway muscles and promoting normal lung function.
However, as with most pharmaceuticals, continued use of such drugs steadily reduces their therapeutic efficacy and could even contribute to worse asthma symptoms over time. They may also cause side effects such as headaches, nervous tension, muscle cramps and heart palpitations.
As such, researchers have been keen to develop drugs that could increase the efficiency of asthma medication. Most researchers have centered their attention on molecules that inhibit or activate intracellular signaling pathways in cells by binding with receptors. The downside is that while these molecules can find and bind to target receptors, they can also mistakenly bind to similar-looking receptors and cause adverse health effects.
Allosteric modulators have emerged as a class of molecules that can bind to a receptor to deliver a specific function with minimal chances of side effects. A recent study also found that allosteric modulators boosted the muscle relaxation abilities of β2-adrenergic drugs.
By binding to specific sites and only influencing those sites, allosteric modulators can deliver their intended purpose without causing unwanted side effects. This means that including the modulators in asthma treatments that involve β-agonists would make the medication more precise with how it acts on the body.
According to the researchers, allosteric modulators could make it possible for patients to use lower concentrations of β2-adrenergic drugs to combat their asthma, limiting the overall amount they use and reducing the medication’s decline in efficiency over time. Study author and Thomas Jefferson University professor Deepak Deshpande said that the modulators created a “novel set of compounds” that allowed them to increase the efficiency of β-agonists.
Given the widespread use of β-agonists in the mitigation of lung diseases that involve bronchoconstriction, Deshpande said, their findings would aid further research in the development of much more effective β-agonists. The research team plans on refining allosteric modulators in further research to optimize them and increase their efficiency even more.
Numerous approaches are being taken by enterprises such as BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. ( NASDAQ: BVXV) to find ways to address the growing challenges posed by autoimmune conditions, including asthma. Hopefully, these efforts will soon yield results that will improve the quality of life of the patients who live with these ailments.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: BVXV) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/BVXV
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