The design and implementation of trials of host modulation agents

Over the last two decades it has become more evident that although oral microorganisms are essential agents of periodontal pathogenesis, interpatient variability in the host response is a major determinant of the expression of periodontal disease extent and severity. Data from animal models and human studies have identified many of the components of the host inflammatory response which serve as critical mediators of clinical inflammation, attachment loss, and bone resorption. Studies suggest that certain pharmacologic agents, which act at a molecular level to block specific inflammatory mediators, appear to attenuate disease progression. These promising findings herald a new era in periodontal medicine. Anti-infective therapies may soon be supplemented with anti-inflammatory pharmacological agents. However, there are many unanswered issues regarding formulation design, clinical application, potential indication claims, and clinical study design. Furthermore, current considerations of fundamental mechanisms of pathogenesis, as well as new data from epidemiologic studies emphasizing the multifactorial nature of disease, are changing the underlying assumptions which have served to guide our design of anti-infective drug trials over the last two decades. There are new questions regarding appropriate outcome measurements which are to be reconsidered. For example, the measurement of a change in periodontal disease status, either during progression or in response to therapy, is fundamentally unidimensional and may be only mildly informative when one considers that the disease is multifactorial by nature. Using an example from intensive care medicine, pathophysiologic studies of septic shock have demonstrated that the microbial dose and the host inflammatory mediator response are far better predictors of patient morbidity and mortality than any combination of clinical signs associated with clinical shock. Clinical trials of anti-cytokine and anti-inflammatory drugs to treat shock are now designed and conducted taking strategic advantage of this knowledge by including measurements of microbial dose and host response. It appears prudent that the design and implementation of clinical trials of host modulation agents also benefit from our current insights into pathogenesis and not represent a template-driven adaptation of historical, anti-infective clinical trial protocols.