Treatment with dactolisib effectively reduced incidence of respiratory tract infections among high-risk elderly patients with asthma, according to data presented at the 2019 American Thoracic Society International Conference in Dallas.

“Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are one of the most important risk factors for asthma exacerbations,” Joan Mannick, MD, chief medical officer of resTORbio, and colleagues wrote. “RTIs are a particularly important risk factor for asthmatics ≥65 years of age in whom asthma exacerbations and hospitalizations peak in the winter when circulation of multiple respiratory viruses also peak. However, no treatments currently exist that reduce the overall incidence of RTIs, which are caused by hundreds of different viral serotypes that mostly lack effective therapies or vaccines.”

Meeting presentation. Source: Getty

In previous studies oral TORC1 inhibitors were shown to upregulate antiviral gene expression and reduce the incidence of RTIs among healthy elderly patients. Therefore, researchers conducted a phase 2b trial of TORC1 inhibitor dactolisib alone or in combination with everolimus among high-risk elderly patients.

The study included 652 patients at least 85 years or 65 years with asthma, COPD, type 2 diabetes, or current smokers. Patients were randomly assigned dactolisib lone or in combination with everolimus or placebo.

The percentage of patients with one or more laboratory confirmed RTI during 16 weeks of treatment served as the primary endpoint.

Dactolisib reduced the number patients with RTIs by 30.6% (OR = 0.601, P = .025). Patients older than 85 years or 65 years with asthma were higher responders, with a 66.7% (OR = 0.184; P = .007) and 68.9% (OR = 0.105; P = .0001) reduction respectively in the percentage of patients with RTIs compare with placebo. Patients with asthma had a 78.6% reduction in RTIs.

“Dactolisib safely and effectively reduced the incidence of RTIs, one of the major risk factors for asthma exacerbations, in high-risk elderly subjects including elderly subjects with asthma,” the authors concluded.