Possible Biological Heterogeneity of Airway Mucus Plugs in a Patient with Asthma
Hiroki Tashiro, Mizuki Nanri, Yuki Kuwahara, Yuki Kurihara, Shinya Kimura, Koichiro Takahashi · 2024
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Description
Hiroki Tashiro and co-authors report one asthma patient whose airway mucus plugs answered one biologic drug but not another in a 2024 case paper. The 79-year-old woman had high counts of a white cell type tied to allergic inflammation, and scans showed heavy plugs blocking her airways. A first antibody drug, aimed at that cell's growth signal, ran three months while the plugs grew and breathing measures stalled.
Switching to a second antibody, which blocks a shared receptor for two other signals, changed everything in three months. The plugs vanished, lung function and breath markers improved, and symptoms settled. Care continued on the second drug with stable results. The case hints that plugs differ in their biology between patients, so drug choice may need to match the plug type.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Hiroki Tashiro, Mizuki Nanri, Yuki Kuwahara, Yuki Kurihara, Shinya Kimura, Koichiro Takahashi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 12 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |