Podcast

Biologic Breakthroughs for Severe Asthma with Dr. Mario Castro

Author(s):

Dr. Castro and Dr. Rizzo discuss the evolving world of monoclonal antibodies for severe asthma. Plus, the ALA team discusses September's annual Asthma Peak Week, and what it means for reopening schools.

Episode highlights

0:15 Back to school with Asthma Peak Week
9:48
Biologics: the emerging severe asthma treatment field
11:34
Defining type 2 inflammation and severe asthma
15:47
Severe asthma biomarkers
21:23
IL-4, IL-13, TSLP: Promising pathways
25:49
Severe asthma diagnostic clues
28:34
Asthma biologic decision-making
35:31
How long-term is a biologic therapy?
37:44
The future of asthma-modifying therapy
41:09
Understanding asthmatic COVID-19 risk
44:57
Outro

The evolving field of biologic therapy may have come to the public forefront for their formidable role in combating COVID-19 in recent years, but to investigators and prescribers, they have been a mainstay in another respiratory field for decades now.

In the September 2021 episode of Lungcast, Al Rizzo, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the American Lung Association (ALA), discusses severe asthma biologic therapy with Mario Castro, MD, MPH.

Castro is the Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; Vice-Chair for Clinical and Translational Research; and Director of Rainbow Clinical and Translational Science Unit, Frontiers at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.

Rizzo and Castro delve into the growing fields of severe asthma biomarkers and treatment-targeting pathways, and the field’s most promising agents such as dupilumab, omalizumab, and tezepelumab. As Castro explains, the potential for these agents may be still untapped.

“These biologic therapies…are achieving control, they’re improving lung function, and we think they may have a chance of disease modification,” Castro said.

Prior to their discussion, Rizzo is joined by Cindy Trubisky, National Senior Director of Health Promotion for Asthma at the ALA, for insight on September’s “Asthma Peak Week.”

Lungcast is a monthly respiratory health podcast series from the ALA, produced by HCPLive.

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