Effects of nedocromil sodium on bronchospasm and HS-NCA release induced by allergen inhalation in asthmatic patients

The aim of this study was to assess the ability of nedocromil sodium (NS) to prevent the immediate asthmatic reaction and the increase in the serum level of heat stable neutrophil chemotactic activity (HS-NCA) induced by antigen inhalation. In a double-blind, cross-over study, 13 atopic subjects affected with seasonal asthma underwent a bronchial provocation test with a preselected dose of grass pollen allergen (enough to cause a decrease of ≥20% in FEV1:FEV1 PD20) after pre-treatment with 4 mg NS or placebo. Serum samples were withdrawn from 11 subjects for HS-NCA determination. After NS administration the decrease in FEV1 was significantly less than after placebo administration at all time points after challenge (2 min P = 0.0004; 7 min, P = 0.0005; 17 min P = 0.0002 and 27 min P = 0.0005). The percentage increase in HS-NCA was significantly higher after placebo than after NS inhalation, both 10 (P = 0.0048) and 20 (P = 0.0068) min after challenge. Our study confirms previous investigations, showing that NS inhibits the immediate asthmatic response to allergen inhalation in atopic, asthmatic subjects and moreover it shows that this drug prevents in vivo the increase of the serum HS-NCA. This last finding has not been previously reported.