Personalised medicine for asthma control
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Prescribing asthma controller medication according to gene status to improve quality of life in children and young people with asthma
IRAS ID
164449
Contact name
Somnath Mukhopadhyay
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Brighton & Sussex Medical School
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
One in every 11 children in the UK has asthma. Children with asthma cough, wheeze and have difficulty breathing. The symptoms which children experience can mean they miss school and makes it difficult for children to take part in playground games and sports. Some have to be admitted to hospital. In fact, in the UK a child is admitted to hospital every 18 minutes because of their asthma.
Effective medicines are available, but a child’s response to these medicines is currently unpredictable. This project focuses on an asthma controller medicine called salmeterol. According to reports, tens of thousands of children may be taking this medicine in the UK, but evidence suggests it might not work for around one in seven of them. We are investigating whether a new approach to treatment, where prescribing is personalised according to a child’s genetic make-up, improves the child’s quality of life and provides better control of their asthma. Treatment that is tailored in this way to a person’s genetic features is often called ‘personalised medicine’.
At the moment, doctors commonly prescribe salmeterol to relieve asthma symptoms if children do not benefit enough from other medicines. But evidence suggests salmeterol may not work properly in children with a certain genetic makeup.
We are investigating whether it helps to take children and young people’s genetic makeup into account when deciding whether to give them salmeterol or an alternative medicine called montelukast. A simple and inexpensive saliva test can provide the information needed to guide decision making.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
15/ES/0007
Date of REC Opinion
9 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion