Short-term therapeutic effectiveness of tezepelumab in patients with severe asthma: A real-world study.

BACKGROUND

Tezepelumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody which specifically binds to thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), thus effectively inhibiting its pleiotropic pathogenic actions. Tezepelumab has been licensed for add-on biologic therapy of severe asthma, regardless of biomarker levels or phenotype expression.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this real-life, retrospective, single-centre investigation has been to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of tezepelumab in different phenotypes of severe asthma.

METHODS

At baseline and after 4 weeks of add-on therapy with tezepelumab, several clinical, functional and biologic parameters were assessed in 30 patients with either T2-high or T2-low severe asthma, who had been or not previously treated with other biologics.

RESULTS

After 4 weeks of treatment, tezepelumab induced significant improvements in symptom control (ACT score), asthma-related quality of life (AQLQ score), oral corticosteroid intake, and lung function (FEV1, FEF25-75, Rtot). Tezepelumab also significantly decreased the levels of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and blood basophil count. Moreover, tezepelumab significantly lowered the serum concentrations of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The above clinical, functional, and biologic effects of tezepelumab were observed in both T2-high and T2-low severe asthmatic patients, as well as in subjects with or without previous therapeutic experiences based on the use of other biologics.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this real-world study suggest that tezepelumab can be used, in both T2-high and T2-low severe asthmatic patients, as a valuable add-on biologic drug characterized by a very fast onset of action.