Novel medications for asthma: a look at the future.

The principal components of the asthmatic response are airways hyper-responsiveness, persistent inflammation and mucus hypersecretion. Although these components are inter-related, any of these can predominate at different times and for different patients and each requires a different approach to therapy. As a result of the inflammation and epithelial damage, there can be abnormal repair mechanisms leading to fixed airflow obstruction that has been termed 'airways remodeling'. Although there are a number of highly effective therapeutic agents used to treat asthma today, novel therapies are being designed to more specifically and safely target these different components and better meet the needs of patients with asthma.