ABSTRACT
Asthma is a chronic allergic inflammatory disease of lung. The initiation and progression of asthma is dependent on the cytokines interleukin (IL) -4 and IL-13 acting through related receptor complexes. Disease pathogenesis is effected by intracellular signaling pathways that couple primarily to specific motifs within the intracellular domain of the IL-4 receptor alpha chain (IL-4R alpha), a subunit that is common to the IL-4 and IL-13 receptor complexes. Neutralizing anti-cytokine strategies have proven to be highly successful on dissecting relevant effector pathways in experimental allergic disease, and are now entering clinical trials in human allergic disorders. Although there have been only a few clinical studies on the effects of cytokine modulators in asthma, this line of research and development appears promising.