NIAID Researchers at the Clinical Center Search for New Ways to Treat Influenza in People with Underlying Lung Disease

Episode # 44
Uploaded: July 30, 2010
Running Time: 5:21

SCHMALFELDT:From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

Influenza can be more than just a seasonal nuisance. It can be a killer. And for folks with underlying lung diseases, the problem is more complicated. That's one reason why researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH are conducting a study at the NIH Clinical Center to look for new and better ways to treat influenza that are safe for folks with underlying lung diseases like asthma. Dr. Kenneth Olivier is a principal investigator in the Immunopathogenesis Section of the Laboratory of infectious diseases at the NIAID.

OLIVIER: One of the problems with the current available drugs is that because they’re attacking the virus, over time the virus can develop ways to get around the effect of those drugs and develop resistance. And new strains of viruses can come along which may already have the ability to resist current treatments.

SCHMALFELDT: And how would the new drug being studied hopefully change that?

OLIVIER: This drug is aimed at the attachment sites on the human airway that the virus connects with to cause the damage and it basically blocks those attachment sites so the virus can’t take hold and do the bad things that it typically does in the respiratory tract. One of the advantages of this treatment is thought to be a way of avoiding development of resistance of the virus. It also increases the spectrum of activity of in that it encompasses a variety of influenza virus including the H1N1 virus and a lot of the newer strains of influenza that have come along. So we’re very excited about the prospect of this new treatment and what it may mean for treatment of influenza in general.

SCHMALFELDT: The trial is being conducted with a new study drug called DAS181 or Fludase®.  And it's the way the drug needs to be administered that is a big part of this clinical trial.

OLIVIER: It’s an inhaled treatment and past experience with inhaled treatments for influenza have shown some difficulties in tolerability of those drugs in patients with underlying airways disease. And since those individuals are most susceptible to developing problems with influenza, we feel that it is important early on to test the safety of this drug in people with underlying asthma or in underlying airways disease called bronchiectasis, which causes recurring infections in the lower airway, to make sure that the inhaled drug is safe in those individuals. So this particular study is aimed at people that have mild asthma or well-controlled bronchiectasis who are not infected with influenza. They’re in their sort of healthy state. We’ll have them come in and inhale the drug and monitor them to make sure that it’s safe.

SCHMALFELDT: Participants in this study should be folks who have mild asthma that's under good control with no recent flare-ups, or folks who have well-controlled bronchiectasis, which is a condition in which damage to the airways causes them to widen and become flabby and scarred. And if the trial produces the hoped-for results?

OLIVIER: So if the study goes well and the drug appears to be safe in individuals with underlying lung disease, the next plan would be to study the drug in individuals with lung disease who are infected with influenza. Currently there are studies ongoing in South Africa looking at individuals who don’t have underlying lung disease, who are infected with influenza to look to see how the drug actually works against the influenza virus.

SCHMALFELDT: If you would like more information about this study or one of the 1,500 other studies offered at the NIH Clinical Center, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov, or e-mail prpl@mail.cc.nih.gov. You may also call our call center toll free at 1-866-999-5553. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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