The Importance of Eosinophils in Personalized Severe Asthma Treatment

Mark S. Forshag, MD, MHA, GSK, spoke with MD Magazine at AAAAI 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, about the importance of eosinophils in treating severe asthma. Forshag said his team focused on the mass cell and have come to realize there are additional forms of inflammation mediated by the eosinophil cell.

Forshag also shared how phenotypes help identify patients that "are a little different from others". According to Forshag, learning the basis of phenotypes is necessary for understanding the use of the monoclonal antibody Nucala, which is directed against interleukin 5.

Regarding patient care, Forshag said that in the past there used to be a steady progression of drugs clinicans would try on their patients with asthma, and it was pretty much the same progression of drugs no matter what asthmatic they were. However, now they are trying to break people down into subgroups and use specific druugs based on subgroup.