Scientists have suggested that thousands of children who suffer with severe asthma are taking medication that will never help them. However, a simple spit test has been developed that would allow doctors to identify them and prescribe an alternative.
The drug salmeterol, which is found in purple and green inhalers, is one of the most commonly prescribed in the UK. But as many as one in seven people will not respond to it, making it completely ineffective in combating asthma, which affects the wellbeing of tens of thousands of children across the country.
Every child who is diagnosed the disease is prescribed the blue inhaler. Those children who cannot control their asthma with the blue inhaler are prescribed either the Seretide or Servent inhalers, both of which contain salmeterol.
The drug works by relaxing the airways of the lungs, acting on the beta-2 receptors. However, one in seven people has a genetic mutation that makes their receptors a different shape. This difference in the shape makes it difficult for the drug to recognise them which causes it to fail. But DNA that has been taken from a child’s spit can reveal whether they have the receptor mutation and whether salmeterol will work on them.
A study, by the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the University of Dundee, looked at 62 children who have the receptor mutation. Half the children were given salmeterol while the other half were given an alternative asthma drug called montelukast. The research concluded that the children taking montelukast were showing reduced symptoms and having less time off school.
The test will cost as little as £15 and will be able to alert doctors immediately if they are prescribing medication that simply will not work. The total number of children with the mutation who are still taking the ineffective salmeterol isn’t precisely known, but could number as many as 15,000 in the UK alone. The test could quickly and cheaply reduce this number to virtually zero.
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