Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 20, 2026
Bronchial Thermoplasty: A Novel Therapeutic Approach to Severe Asthma
Published on: November 4, 2010
Personalized medicine in children with asthma
Mariëlle W Pijnenburg1, Stanley Szefler2
1Department of Paediatrics/ Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Erasmus Medical Centre - Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Insights
Personalized medicine for pediatric asthma offers tailored treatment for better control and fewer side effects. Pharmacogenetics and e-health show promise, but more research is needed for widespread clinical use.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pulmonology
- Clinical Pharmacology
- Biomarker Research
Background:
- Personalized medicine in pediatric asthma aims for tailored management.
- Predicting treatment response using patient characteristics, lung function, and biomarkers is crucial.
- Pharmacogenetics offers potential for personalized asthma therapy due to genetic influences on drug response.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current state and future directions of personalized medicine for children with asthma.
- To identify key patient characteristics, biomarkers, and genetic factors influencing asthma treatment.
- To explore the role of e-health interventions in managing pediatric asthma.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on personalized medicine, pharmacogenetics, and biomarkers in pediatric asthma.
- Analysis of studies predicting treatment response and medication reduction.
- Evaluation of the clinical applicability of exhaled breath biomarkers and e-health interventions.
Main Results:
- Several patient factors and biomarkers can predict asthma treatment response and medication reduction.
- Pharmacogenetics is a key area, though limited gene identification and lack of RCTs are barriers.
- Fraction of exhaled nitric oxide is a validated biomarker; e-health interventions show non-inferiority to usual care.
Conclusions:
- Personalized medicine can improve asthma control, reduce adverse events, and potentially lower costs in children.
- Further research is essential to identify more genetic markers and validate biomarkers for clinical use.
- E-health and refined biomarker strategies are expected to advance personalized asthma management in pediatrics.
Abstract:
Personalized medicine for children with asthma aims to provide a tailored management of asthma, which leads to faster and better asthma control, has less adverse events and may be cost saving. Several patient characteristics, lung function parameters and biomarkers have been shown useful in predicting treatment response or predicting successful reduction of asthma medication. As treatment response to the main asthma therapies is partly genetically determined, pharmacogenetics may open the way for personalized medicine in children with asthma. However, the number of genes identified for the various asthma drug response phenotypes remains small and randomized controlled trials are lacking. Biomarkers in exhaled breath or breath condensate remain promising but did not find their way from bench to bedside yet, except for the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide. E-health will most likely find its way to clinical practice and most interventions are at least non-inferior to usual care. More studies are needed on which interventions will benefit most individual children.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Asthma-I: Introduction
01:30Asthma-IV: Diagnostic and Management
Clinical Assessment for Asthma:
This is the first step in diagnosing and managing asthma. It includes:
01:20Asthma: Pathogenesis and Management
Asthma is classified as allergic and non-allergic. Allergens such as dust mites, pollen, and pet dander trigger allergic asthma, while factors like cold air, intense emotions, or exercise can induce non-allergic asthma.
01:25Antiasthma Drugs: Mast Cell Stabilizers and Anti-IgE Drugs
Mast cell stabilizers, such as cromolyn (also known as sodium cromoglycate) and nedocromil (Tilade), are effective drugs in asthma management. These stabilizers hinder histamine release by skillfully obstructing the activation of mast cells and other cellular entities. Notably, they navigate this task without...
01:19Antiasthma Drugs: Leukotriene Modifiers
Leukotriene modifiers work through two distinct mechanisms:
01:30Asthma-IV: Nursing Management
First, in...