Current Limitations and Recent Advances in the Management of Asthma

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a significant worldwide health issue affecting kids and adults. Asthma management is mainly straightforward, but considering the associated co-morbidities, it is essential to diagnose the disease accurately. Steroid resistance and dependence, along with inhaler abuse, are the other challenges in clinical practice. Despite being treated with the recommended guidelines, a good portion of the population has persistent symptoms. Emerging biological treatments can alter the global landscape of managing severe asthma. With these new therapeutic possibilities, phenotype- and endotype-specific therapies can be used to individualize treatment plans.

Methodology: We searched Medline, Embase, Google Scholar, and PubMed until March 2022 for all types of literature. Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms such as "asthma," "pathogenesis," "diagnosis and classification," "comorbidities," "treatments," "inhaler abuse & corticosteroid resistance," and "biologics" were used in the searches. To better understand the disease, we analyzed the literature on asthma regarding pathophysiology, diagnostic criteria, endotypic and phenotypic classification, comorbidities, existing treatment guidelines, management challenges, and potential for biologics in uncontrolled cases.

Results: After exploring the data, our review article aims to highlight current limitations in the clinical management of asthma and the advances in treating asthma.

Conclusion: Clinical practice should consider an integrative approach to the care and prevention of asthma. We advocate for a large-scale cohort of observation studies and RCTs that further look into the underlying immunological mechanisms, the function of hereditary and environmental variables, and the novel molecular targets of asthma in light of the rising incidence and prevalence of the disease. Even with rising steroid resistance and dependence, the standard therapy will be the mainstream of asthma management. Biologics have promiscuous results and the potential for changing the treatment of uncontrolled asthma. Optimizing the standard therapy with biologics is needed to decrease asthma-related morbidity.