Credit: SciTechDaily.comThe SHAMAL study reveals that benralizumab, a biologic therapy, offers a brand-new, more secure approach to dealing with severe asthma without relying on high-dose steroids.A landmark study has actually revealed that extreme asthma can be controlled using biologic therapies, without the addition of routine high-dose inhaled steroids which can have substantial side effects.The findings from the multinational SHAMAL study, published in The Lancet, demonstrated that 92% of patients utilizing the biologic therapy benralizumab might safely reduce breathed in steroid dosage and more than 60% could stop all use.The research studys results might be transformative for extreme asthma patients by reducing or removing the undesirable, and typically severe, side results of inhaled steroids. This leads to everyday signs of shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough, along with repeated asthma attacks which require regular hospitalization.The SHAMAL study was led by Professor David Jackson, head of the Severe Asthma Centre at Guys and St Thomas and Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Kings College London.Professor Jackson said: “Biological therapies such as benralizumab have reinvented severe asthma care in many ways, and the results of this study show for the very first time that steroid associated damage can be avoided for the majority of patients using this treatment. Approximately 90% of patients experienced no worsening of asthma signs and remained free of any exacerbations throughout the 48-week study.Similar studies to SHAMAL will be required before firm recommendations can be made concerning the security and efficacy of minimizing or removing high-dose steroid use with other biologic therapies.Reference: “Reduction of everyday maintenance inhaled corticosteroids in patients with extreme eosinophilic asthma treated with benralizumab (SHAMAL): a randomised, multicentre, open-label, stage 4 study” by David J Jackson, Liam G Heaney, Marc Humbert, Brian D Kent, Anat Shavit, Lina Hiljemark, Lynda Olinger, David Cohen, Andrew Menzies-Gow, Stephanie Korn, Claus Kroegel, Cristiano Caruso, Ilaria Baglivo, Stefania Colantuono, David Jackson, Dirk Skowasch, Fabiano Di Marco, Francis Couturaud, Frank Käßner, Iwona Cwiek, Markus Teber, Kornelia Knetsch, Jasmin Preuß, Gilles Devouassoux, Katrin Milger-Kneidinger, Liam Heaney, Lukas Jerrentrup, Marc Humbert, Margret Jandl, Hartmut Timmermann, Beatrice Probst, Maria DAmato, Martin Hoffmann, Philippe Bonniaud, Guillaume Beltramo, Pierre-Olivier Girodet, Patrick Berger, Shuaib Nasser, Stéphanie Fry, Stephanie Korn, Sven Philip Aries, Thomas Koehler and Timothy Harrison, 7 December 2023, The Lancet.DOI: 10.1016/ S0140-6736( 23 )02284-5The research study was moneyed by AstaZeneca and carried out by researchers at prominent universities consisting of Queens University Belfast, Université Paris-Saclay and Trinity College Dublin.