RESEARCHERS AT Dundee University have discovered that a significant proportion of young asthmatics may not benefit from a commonly used asthma medicine.

Their discovery could now lead to “personalised” asthma treatment, with the help of an individual patient’s genetic profile.

The research team led by Dr Somnath Mukhopadhyay, Professor Brian Lipworth and Dr Colin Palmer, has found that a specific genetic variant, known as the Arg/Arg-16 variant, causes the commonly prescribed asthma drug salmeterol to be ineffective.

The gene variation is present in around 13% of the population of young people with asthma in Tayside.

Their research shows that while most patients on salmeterol have their asthma well controlled, those with the Arg/Arg-16 variant have almost double the number of asthma attacks compared to those with the other forms of this gene.

Future research will determine if genetic testing for the Arg/Arg 16 variant should be used in deciding routine asthma prescribing.

This is a first step in the path to “personalized medicine” where genetic information will lead to the more effective use of drugs.

“It was apparent that some patients with asthma could be failing to respond to inhaled salmeterol, but we have identified a likely cause for this that is linked to this genetic status,” said Dr Mukhopadhyay, of the Children’s Asthma and Allergy Research Unit at the university.

“Where this discovery takes us is towards more personalised asthma treatment, where we can identify which medicines can be used or avoided depending on an individual’s genetic profile, and we can ensure the best possible treatment.”

Salmeterol is part of a group of drugs known as beta-agonists, and is widely prescribed to patients with asthma who fail to respond well to inhaled steroids.

There are 5.2 million people in the UK currently receiving various forms of asthma treatment, and an estimated 675,000 of these carry the Arg/Arg-16 gene variation and therefore may not benefit from salmeterol treatment.

There are other drugs that can be used as alternative treatments in these individuals.