Abstract
We thank Dr. Lipworth and colleagues for their interest in our work published recently in the Journal (1). They rightly point out that the biology of asthma attacks is more complex than blood eosinophils alone and that corticosteroids have a wide range of other potentially relevant antiinflammatory effects. However, local treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) is usually the mainstay of patients with frequent eosinophilic exacerbations, and therefore in the great majority of patients, the key question is what oral corticosteroids (OCS) add to ICS in an acute attack (2) and whether this effect is seen with benralizumab. We suggest that depletion of circulating eosinophils is the only effect OCS are likely to have that are not shared with ICS (3).
Document Type
Letter to the Editor
Date of Publication
2020
Volume
202
Issue
12
PubMed ID
32970450
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publisher
American Thoracic Society
Included in
Chemicals and Drugs Commons, Respiratory Tract Diseases Commons, Translational Medical Research Commons
Comments
Moran, A. M., Ramakrishnan, S., Borg, C. A., Connolly, C. M., Couillard, S., Mwasuku, C. M., … Lehtimӓki, L. (2020). Reply to Lipworth et al.: Don't forget about facilitatory effects of corticosteroids on β2-adrenoceptors in acute asthma. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 202(12), 1743-1744. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202008-3106LE