Emerging biologic targets in type 2 and non-type 2 asthma.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Severe asthma continues to be a significant cause of global morbidity and mortality despite the dramatic change in landscape of asthma management dramatically over the last two decades, However, there are a variety of novel therapeutic agents under investigation whose goals are to enable patients with severe asthma to achieve remission.

RECENT FINDINGS: New strategies in drug development include an ultra-long-acting mechanism with reduced administration frequency, biologics used in combinations, oral therapies and novel therapeutic targets. These targets include bruton tyrosine kinase, OX-40 ligand, janus kinase, CC-chemokine receptor4 (CCR4), and GATA-3, among others reviewed here.

SUMMARY: Many patients have benefited tremendously from the currently available asthma biologics in achieving better symptoms control, improved quality of life, and reduced cumulative dose of systemic steroids. Despite this, most patients are unable to achieve remission, potentially related to shortcomings of these therapies in addressing asthma's heterogeneous pathophysiology. As such, a variety of novel therapeutic mechanisms and targets are being investigated and are discussed in this review.