LABA Drugs for Asthma May Negatively Impact People With Rare Genetic Variations

Asthma affects more than 25 million people in the United States. Long-acting beta agonists (LABAs) are the most common drugs to treat the lung disease, but they may cause life-threatening side effects within a small subgroup of asthma patients, a recent study revealed.

Doctors and researchers have longed wondered who exactly is at risk for these side effects. In the event of adverse symptoms, they prescribe alternative medication. Yet learning what puts someone at risk would go a long way when it comes to the safety of patients.

This study, which appeared in the Jan. 27^th issue of Lacent Respiratory Medicine, was authored by Eugene Bleecker, M.D., and Director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine Research at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "This severe reaction only occurs in a very small percentage of people who have asthma, and we don't know what makes these people different from those who do well on this therapy," said Bleecker in an article from EurekAlert!

The rare genetic variants that account for these severe responses to LABAs have a potential for greater negative effects, hence the life-threatening connotation. Researchers at Wake Forest have discovered and expanded upon six rare gene variants that elicit this response to LABAs. They found these variants through a diversified blood sample pool of 191 non-Hispanic white, 197 African-American and 73 Puerto Rica asthma patients.

"Looking at different ethnic groups provides an opportunity to study rare variants that come with different ethnic ancestries," said Victor Ortega, M.D., at Wake Forest Baptist, in the EurekAlert! article. "In general, older ancestral populations, such as Africans, have a higher frequency of rare genetic variants that could account for differences in responses to LABAs."

Despite the finding of the six rare gene variants, the research team determined that testing for these variants is not suggested at this time because further research must be conducted in order to validate the experiment's results. They believe that additional research may help further identify genetic biomarkers that could predict the safest and most effective treatment option for asthma patients.

Correction notice: An earlier version of this article wrongly included a picture of the TEVA product ProAir® HFA which is not a long-acting beta agonist (LABA) and thus not related to the subject of this article.