AUTHOR=Rahmawati Siti Farah , te Velde Maurice , Kerstjens Huib A. M. , Dömling Alexander S. S. , Groves Matthew Robert , Gosens Reinoud 

TITLE=Pharmacological Rationale for Targeting IL-17 in Asthma

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Allergy

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/allergy/articles/10.3389/falgy.2021.694514

DOI=10.3389/falgy.2021.694514

ISSN=2673-6101

ABSTRACT=Asthma is a respiratory disease that currently affects around 300 million people worldwide and is defined by coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, mucus-overproduction, chest tightness, and expiratory airflow limitation. Increased levels of IL-17 have been observed in sputum, nasal and bronchial biopsies, and serum of asthma patients compared to healthy controls. Patients with higher levels of IL-17 have a more severe asthma phenotype. Biologics are available for Th2-high asthmatics, but the Th17-high subpopulation has a relatively low response to these treatments, rendering it a rather severe asthma phenotype to treat. Several experimental models suggest that targeting the IL-17 pathway may be beneficial in asthma. Moreover, as increased activation of the Th17/IL-17 axis is correlated with reduced ICS sensitivity, targeting the IL-17 pathway might reverse ICS unresponsiveness. In this review, we present and discuss the current knowledge on the role of IL-17 in asthma and its interaction with the Th2 pathway, focusing on the rationale for therapeutic targeting of the IL-17 pathway.