Bronchial Thermoplasty: Mechanism of Action and Defining Asthma Phenotype

According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, more than 200 million people suffer from asthma worldwide and in 2009, the disease had claimed 250,000 lives globally. Autopsy reports suggest 2 phenotypes of severe asthma: one that is characterized by intense airway inflammation with mucus plugging, and the other by severe bronchoconstriction causing respiratory failure in the absence of significant airway inflammation. However, it is not easy to stratify patients according to phenotypes without bronchoscopy. Although severe asthma comprises only 10% of affected individuals, it accounts for more than half of the total healthcare spending on asthma. Inhaled corticosteroids are effective by suppressing production of multiple pro-inflammatory mediators, unfortunately efficacy plateaus. Addition of long acting beta agonist and anti-cholinergic agent to inhaled corticosteroids offers some measure of relief but effective treatment of severe asthma remains an unmet goal, resulting in intensive utilization of healthcare resources. In 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved bronchial thermoplasty (BT) as an adjunctive therapy for severe asthma. BT is radiofrequency ablation of airway smooth muscle via bronchoscopy with each patient undergoing three procedures which targets different lobes of the lung 3 weeks apart. Studies have demonstrated improved symptom control allowing discontinuation of oral steroids in some patients as well as reductions in exacerbations, hospitalizations and use of rescue medications. No development of airway strictures or bronchiectasis, and regeneration of normal epithelium after BT has been observed. At present, it remains unclear if BT benefits all asthma phenotypes or if BT has any effect on airway inflammation and remodeling.

The hypothesis of this study is that bronchial thermoplasty is likely to benefit all severe asthma phenotypes, and achieves this by exerting an effect on airway inflammation and remodelling.

The specific aims of the study are: 1) to better define the asthma phenotype who will benefit from BT by microarray and gene expression profiling; 2) to study effects of BT on airway inflammation; 3) to define its role in the overall asthma management algorithm