A new injectable medicine is giving hope to people with asthma by helping them breathe better.
The drug, called dupilumab (brand name Dupixent), has shown in a recent study that it can reduce the thick mucus that clogs up the lungs during an asthma attack. This makes it easier for patients to breathe.
The study was published in the journal American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. It found that people who took dupilumab had much less mucus blocking their airways compared to those who didn’t get the drug. In fact, the number of patients with severe mucus plugs was cut in half after the treatment.
Asthma is a serious condition where a person’s airways become inflamed and narrowed, making it hard to breathe. One of the things that makes asthma worse is when too much sticky mucus builds up inside the lungs.
For people with moderate to severe asthma, this can be very dangerous. It can lead to extreme difficulty breathing, frequent asthma attacks, and even death.
Everyone has mucus in their body—it’s a normal part of staying healthy. But when someone has asthma, too much mucus can get stuck, especially during an attack. This makes breathing even harder. Some patients say that the mucus can feel like it’s choking them. They sometimes gag or feel very anxious when they can’t get it out.
Dupilumab was first approved in 2017 to treat eczema, a skin condition caused by problems with the immune system. Since then, it’s also been used for asthma, chronic sinus infections, and even COPD (a lung disease). It works by calming down the immune system and reducing inflammation in the body, without fully shutting down immune function.
In the recent clinical trial, over 100 asthma patients were chosen at random to either receive dupilumab or a placebo (a fake treatment) every two weeks for about six months. At the start of the study, 67% of people getting dupilumab had airways blocked by mucus.
After treatment, only 33% still had that problem. On the other hand, those who got the placebo saw almost no change—73% started with mucus plugs, and 77% still had them after six months.
Researchers also measured the patients’ breath and found that those on dupilumab had lower levels of nitric oxide, a sign that their inflammation had gone down.
The researchers say these results show that dupilumab helps reduce both inflammation and mucus buildup in asthma patients, and it starts working as soon as four weeks after the first shot. This is a big deal for people living with moderate to severe asthma, as it could mean fewer attacks and better quality of life.
However, the treatment isn’t cheap. Dupilumab costs around $3,900 a month in the United States, making it less accessible for people without strong health insurance.
Still, the findings are promising. With more research and possibly broader access in the future, dupilumab could become an important tool in helping asthma patients breathe easier and avoid serious attacks.
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The study is published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
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