Debajyoti Ghosh, PhD: Potential Benefits of Treating Hereditary Angioedema Early Symptoms

Data presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) 2023 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, provided new insights into the potential benefits of treating hereditary angioedema (HAE) early symptoms, or prodromes, to prevent acute attacks. The findings also highlighted the importance of transcriptomic analysis in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying hereditary angioedema and its treatment.

The AAAAI presenter shared insight on the investigation in an interview with HCPLive. Debajyoti Ghosh, PhD, Research Instructor, Internal Medicine, University of Cincinnati, stated the condition is characterized by swelling of the face, lips, and eyes, and is potentially life-threatening.

"If the swelling affects the airways and alveoli, it can be fatal," he explained. "Hereditary angioedema–a condition associated with a protein called C1 esterase inhibitor–can lead to a deficiency or deformation of the protein, making patients susceptible to the disease."

Results from the study "Biologic Pathways Involved In Hereditary Angioedema And Response to Ruconest Treatment during prodrome and attack", have significant implications for the clinical management of HAE and suggest that treating prodromes may be a viable strategy for preventing acute attacks in hereditary angioedema patients.

The study aimed to investigate whether there is an overlap between blood transcriptomic changes in patients with hereditary angioedema during a prodrome, occurring in 85% of patients prior to an attack, and changes observed pre- and post-treatment of an acute attack, following treatment of the prodrome with Ruconest (recombinant human C1-INH).

"We characterize the gene expression signature of prodrome and attack in order to see how a prodrome actually reflects an attack in moleculer terms, this is number one, he said. "Then number 2, we also compared pre versus post treatment transcriptome in the blood of the patients."