Towards personalization of asthma treatment according to trigger factors

Asthma is a severe and chronic disabling disease affecting more than 300 million people world-wide. While in the past few drugs for treatment of asthma were available, new treatment options are currently emerging which appear to be highly effective in certain subgroups of patients. Accordingly there is a need for biomarkers which allow selection of patients for refined and personalized treatment strategies. Recently, serological chip tests based on micro-arrayed allergen molecules and peptides derived from the most common rhinovirus strains have been developed which may discriminate two of the most common forms of asthma, i.e., allergen- and virus-triggered asthma. In this perspective we argue that classification of asthma patients according to these common trigger factors may open new possibilities for personalized management of asthma