[IgE and Anti-IgE in Asthma: A Chequered History]. / IgE und Anti-IgE bei Asthma: eine wechselvolle Geschichte.

A long and winding road led to the discovery of immunoglobulin E (IgE) in 1966 and 1967. We are currently on a long and winding road to understand the immunologic basis of the clinical effects of the anti-IgE antibody omalizumab in asthma. It is possible that patients with asthma (as patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria) benefit in different immunologic ways from omalizumab treatment. This article reviews the history of IgE discovery and current concepts of anti-IgE therapy in asthma.

[The Escouflaire Laboratories].

Escouflaire antiasthmatic cigarettes and powders knew certain success during almost one century. The medical use of solanaceae with bronchodilator properties helped relieve numerous asthmatics. The Belgian pharmacist Charles Adolphe Escouflaire (1857-1909), pharmacist from the university of Leuven, Belgium, awarded his diploma in 1879. He created his antiasthmatic products in his pharmacy of Ath and established in 1885 a pharmaceutical laboratory. He registered trademarks under the brand name Zematone for its antiasthmatic cigarettes. His products will be rapidly known and sold all over the world. The discovery of a complete box of medical cigarettes in the Czech Republic allows us to evoke his products, the distributor F. S chnöbling in this country, the modes of display and uses. This article redraws the history of the laboratory under the direction of three generations of the Escouflaire family. The laboratory will expand after WWII with production factories in Baisieux and Blandain before definitely close in 1974.

El asma a través de los anuncios publicados en el diario El Eco de Cartagena en 1895 / Asthma seen through the published advertisements on 1895 at the El Eco de Cartagena newspaper

Introducción: El objetivo del trabajo fue estudiar los conocimientos que trasmitían sobre el asma bronquial los anuncios publicados en El Eco de Cartagena en 1895. Material y Métodos: Se seleccionaron todos los anuncios editados en El Eco de Cartagena en 1895 donde se anunciaban remedios para el asma y se analizaron las variables siguientes: frecuencia y secuencia de aparición, principio activo, vía de administración, uso en otras patologías, nacionalidad, lugar de venta y precio. Resultados: Se incluyeron 208 anuncios, donde se publicitaban 12 remedios para el asma distribuidos en 8 textos, con una frecuencia y secuencia de aparición muy variable. Sólo 5 preparados indicaban su composición, 4 se administraban inhalados, 6 se prescribían también en otras patologías, 5 eran españoles, 7 se vendían en farmacias y 5 hacían referencia al precio. Conclusiones: El concepto de asma que trasmiten estos anuncios está desfasado, lo que explica que muchos preparados se utilicen también en otras patologías. Con frecuencia los remedios para el asma se administraban mediante inhalaciones, un concepto vigente. La información contenida en los anuncios puede contribuir a la percepción que tiene la sociedad de una época sobre una enfermedad concreta (AU)

Introduction: This study wants to transmit the knowledge acquired by reading advertisements about asthma, published by El Eco de Cartagena on 1895, as a main objective. Methods: The advertisements concerning to asthma cures, edited by El Eco de Cartagena on 1895, were selected, analysing these variables: frequency and sequence of appearing, active principle, delivering tract, use in other pathologies, nationality, store place and cost. Results: 208 ads were included, where 12 cures for asthma were advertised, arranged in 8 texts, with a very variable frequency and sequence of appearance. Only 5 products indicated their composition, 4 of them were delivered by inhalation, 6 were prescribed in other pathologies, 5 were Spanish, 7 were sold in pharmacies and 5 of them referred their costs. Conclusions: The concept of asthma, passed on by these ads, is outdated, and this explains why many of these products were used in other pathologies too. Frequently, cures for asthma were delivered by inhalations, a valid concept today. The information contained in the ads may contribute to evaluate the perception that society has, in an analysed time, about a determined disease (AU)

[Smoke against asthma: history of a pharmaceutic paradox]. / De la fumée contre l'asthme, histoire d'un paradoxe pharmaceutique.

This article presents many products used against asthma since half of 19th century, until they've been took off from the market, in 1992. Thoses products were used in fumigation or inhalation, without any complex machine. They were powders, impragnated papers, cigares an cigarets. They contained more often nitrates and Solanacées. An exemple of struggle between two specialities is studied: Cléry's powder against Exibard's powder.

A brief history of inhaled asthma therapy over the last fifty years.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the introduction into clinical use of the first modern inhaler for the management of asthma--the pressurised metered-dose inhaler (pMDI). The pMDI was initially used for the administration of the non-selective beta-agonists adrenaline and isoprenaline. However, the epidemic of asthma deaths which occurred in the 1960s led to these drugs being superseded by the selective short-acting beta-agonist salbutamol, and the first inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) beclomethasone. At the same time, sodium cromoglycate was introduced, to be administered via the first dry-powder inhaler--the Spinhaler--but owing to its relatively weak anti-inflammatory action its use is now very limited. Over the last 10 years, the long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs) have become an important add-on therapy for the management of asthma, and they are now often used with ICS in a single ICS/LABA combination inhaler.

Drugs for asthma.

Current drug therapy for asthma is highly effective and has evolved from naturally occurring substances through logical pharmaceutical developments. Pharmacology has played a critical role in asthma drug development and several key experimental observations have been published in this journal. Understanding the pharmacology of effective drug therapies has also taught us much about the underlying mechanisms of asthma. beta(2)-Adrenoceptor agonists are the most effective bronchodilators and evolved from catecholamines from the adrenal medulla, whereas corticosteroids, from the adrenal cortex, are by far the most effective controllers of the underlying inflammatory process in the airways. The current 'gold standard' of asthma therapy is a combination inhaler containing a long-acting beta(2)-agonist with a corticosteroid - an improved form of adrenal gland extract. Cromoglycate, derived from a plant product and theophylline, a dietary methyl xanthine, have also been extensively used in the therapy of asthma, but we still do not understand their molecular mechanisms. Pharmacology has played an important role in improving natural products to make effective long lasting and safe asthma therapies, but has so far been challenged to produce new classes of antiasthma therapy. The only novel class of antiasthma therapy introduced in the last 30 years are leukotriene antagonists, which are less effective than existing treatments. New, more specific, therapies targeted at specific cytokines are less effective than corticosteroids, whereas more effective therapies carry a risk of side effects that may not be acceptable. It seems likely that pharmacology, rather than molecular genetics, will remain the main approach to the further improvement of treatment for asthma.

History of aerosol therapy: liquid nebulization to MDIs to DPIs.

Inhaled therapies have been used since ancient times and may have had their origins with the smoking of datura preparations in India 4,000 years ago. In the late 18th and in the 19th century, earthenware inhalers were popular for the inhalation of air drawn through infusions of plants and other ingredients. Atomizers and nebulizers were developed in the mid-1800s in France and were thought to be an outgrowth of the perfume industry as well as a response to the fashion of inhaling thermal waters at spas. Around the turn of the 20th century, combustible powders and cigarettes containing stramonium were popular for asthma and other lung complaints. Following the discovery of the utility of epinephrine for treating asthma, hand-bulb nebulizers were developed, as well as early compressor nebulizers. The marketing of the first pressurized metered-dose inhaler for epinephrine and isoproterenol, by Riker Laboratories in 1956, was a milestone in the development of inhaled drugs. There have been remarkable advances in the technology of devices and formulations for inhaled drugs in the past 50 years. These have been influenced greatly by scientific developments in several areas: theoretical modeling and indirect measures of lung deposition, particle sizing techniques and in vitro deposition studies, scintigraphic deposition studies, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which banned chlorofluorocarbon propellants. We are now in an era of rapid technologic progress in inhaled drug delivery and applications of aerosol science, with the use of the aerosolized route for drugs for systemic therapy and for gene replacement therapy, use of aerosolized antimicrobials and immunosuppressants, and interest in specific targeting of inhaled drugs.