Safety and efficacy of Tezepelumab vs placebo in adult patients with severe uncontrolled asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Patients with severe uncontrolled asthma still experience acute asthma symptoms and exacerbations, particularly those with non-eosinophilic inflammation who take the maximum amount of standard drug therapy. Tezepelumab, a human monoclonal antibody, can improve lung function and enhance control of asthma symptoms in those patients, regardless of the disease's baseline characteristics. This study explores the safety and efficacy of using tezepelumab in controlling severe symptoms of uncontrolled asthma.Methods and procedures: We performed a comprehensive literature search in several databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and clinicaltrial.gov, using a well-established search strategy to include all relevant publications. As our inclusion criteria, we looked for randomized controlled trials comparing tezepelumab versus placebo in patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma. We analysed the data using The Revman 5.4 programme software.Outcome and Results: The search identified 589 potential articles. After excluding studies inconsistent with selection criteria, four studies were included and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The pooled effect demonstrated the better performance of tezepelumab over the placebo regarding the decrease in Annualized asthma exacerbation rate (MD =-0.74, p<0.00001)), Asthma Control Questionnaire-6 (ACQ-6) Score MD = -0.32, p<0.00001), Blood eosinophil count (MD = -139.38, p<0.00001), feNO (MD = -10, p=0.0008) and Serum IgE (MD = -123.51, p=0.004). All tezepelumab groups had higher pre-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second than the placebo group (MD=0.16, p0.00001).Conclusion: tezepelumab is effective and safe in lowering asthma exacerbations in individuals with severe uncontrolled asthma.