Research in progress: Medical Research Council United Kingdom Refractory Asthma Stratification Programme (RASP-UK)

Abstract

The UK Refractory Asthma Stratification Programme (RASP-UK) will explore novel biomarker stratification strategies in severe asthma to improve clinical management and accelerate development of new therapies. Prior asthma mechanistic studies have not stratified on inflammatory phenotype and the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms in asthma without Type 2 cytokine inflammation is limited. RASP-UK will objectively assess adherence to corticosteroids (CS) and examine a novel composite biomarker strategy to optimise CS dose; this will also address what proportion of patients with severe asthma have persistent symptoms without eosinophilic airways inflammation after progressive CS withdrawal. There will be interactive partnership with the pharmaceutical industry to facilitate access to stratified populations for novel therapeutic studies.

Improving the diagnosis of eosinophilic asthma

“…The RASP-UK Consortium is a large scale research project that aims to explore novel biomarker stratification strategies in severe asthma to improve clinical management and target treatments effectively in patients with severe asthma. This study will examine a novel composite biomarker strategy including FeNO, blood eosinophils, and serum periostin as biomarkers for diagnosing Type 2 inflammation [56].…”

Review of the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2017, 6–8 December 2017, London, UK

“…Professor Liam Heaney (Belfast, Northern Ireland) described the progress on the UK MRC (Medical Research Council) RASP (refracrtory asthma stratification project) programme on severe asthma 39. The aim of this programme is to understand disease control using composite endpoints and by assessing drug adherence using FeNO and the inhaler compliance assessment device.…”

Review of the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2016, 7–9 December, London, UK

“…He placed new emphasis on smart inhaler technology and FeNO monitoring to understand adherence in patients with poorly controlled asthma. This underpins the Refractory Asthma Stratification Programme (RASP) study, which identifies suitable patients for novel biological treatments only when they are adherent to optimised inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) therapy 60. Joseph Arron (Genentech) described using biomarkers from large observational studies to guide study design for new biological therapies in asthma.…”