Allergic asthma is characterized by activation of type 2 helper T cells and associated cytokine production, under the control of the transcription factor GATA3. Here, Krug et al. report the results of a Phase IIa clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of SB010 — a novel DNA enzyme (DNAzyme) that cleaves and inactivates GATA3 mRNA — in 40 patients with mild allergic asthma. Twenty-eight days of once daily inhalation of SB010 significantly attenuated the early and late asthmatic responses (by 11% and 34%, respectively, compared to a 1% and 10% increase with placebo) following an allergen challenge.
References
Krug, N. et al. Allergen-induced asthmatic responses modified by a GATA3-specific DNAzyme. N. Engl. J. Med. 372, 1987–1995 (2015)
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Crunkhorn, S. DNAzyme attenuates allergic asthma. Nat Rev Drug Discov 14, 460 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4677
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4677
