Towards precision medicine in severe asthma: Treatment algorithms based onTowards precision medicine in severe asthma: Treatment algorithms based ontreatable traits
Andriana I. Papaioannou, Zuzana Diamant, Petros Bakakos, Stelios Loukides
Abstract
Asthma is a common disease, and although its clinical manifestations may be similaramong patients, recent research discoveries have shown that it consists of severaldistinct clinical clusters or phenotypes, each with different underlying molecularpathways yielding different treatment responses. Based on these observations, analternative approach - known as ‘precision medicine’ - has been proposed for themanagement of patients with severe asthma. Precision medicine advocatesidentification of treatable traits, linking them to therapeutic approaches targetinggenetic, immunological, environmental, and/or lifestyle factors in individual patients.The main “goal” of this personalized approach is to enable choosing a treatmentwhich will be more likely to produce a beneficial response in the individual patientrather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The aim of the present review is to discussdifferent ways of phenotyping asthma and to provide a rationale for treatmentalgorithms based on principles of precision medicine.