University of Sherbrooke launches new clinical trial for moderate asthma

A multicentre clinical trial led by a researcher from the University of Sherbrooke will test a new therapeutic approach to moderate asthma.

The study will include 150 patients, including 50 in Quebec, suffering from moderate asthma who will be randomly divided into two groups: the first will receive a placebo and the second a molecule called dupilumab which is already used to treat other inflammatory diseases.

“This is a very ambitious study because we are aiming for remission as the primary outcome,” said study leader Dr. Simon Couillard, who spoke to The Canadian Press about the project first. “That means people have a normal life, no more seizures, stable lung function, and few or no symptoms. In the context of a randomized clinical trial, this is a first.”

Moderate asthma affects about 40 per cent of people with asthma, but their condition is usually not severe enough to require treatment by a pulmonologist. They fall somewhere between those with mild asthma and patients who need closer medical monitoring.

However, we now realize that it might be possible to relieve these patients, to reduce the number of crises they suffer each year, and thereby reduce the risk of long-term after-effects, explained Dr. Couillard.

“The study targets moderate asthma with excessive inflammation, what we call high-risk asthma,” he said. “Because the more inflammation you have in asthma, the greater your risk of an asthma attack, so these are high-risk patients. And the beauty of it all is that inflammation is treatable in a dose-dependent way: the more inflammation you have, the better you respond to an anti-inflammatory drug, for example.”

If the results are positive, Dr. Couillard continued, this will open the door to asthma management similar to the management of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or intestinal diseases.

Faced with these diseases, he said, we do not wait for the patient to experience recurrent attacks: the drug is administered as soon as possible to “put the disease to sleep”.

“We hope that our study will lead to a change in practice,” Dr. Couillard emphasized. “Let’s not wait and let’s intervene proactively to predict and prevent crises.”

For the moment, he said, the management of asthma patients depends on the symptoms: the more the patient complains, the more he is treated.

The aim of the study is to avoid what he calls “bronchial remodeling” and loss of lung function, but also “human remodeling,” since each asthma attack is associated with missed days at work or school, anxiety, and the side effects of medications taken to treat it.

“Sometimes entire lives are reshaped around asthma,” Dr. Couillard reminded everyone.

Funded to the tune of $10.08 million by the biopharmaceutical company Sanofi and its partner Regeneron, this initiative brings together the expertise of the University of Sherbrooke, the University of Oxford, and the University of Western Australia. The first results are expected in 2029 or 2030.

—-Patients interested in participating in this clinical trial can contact us here: (819) 342-9729 or prisma@usherbrooke.ca.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews