The role of the complement and contact systems in asthma

For a long time asthma has been regarded as a lung disease associated with lung inflammation, airflow obstruction, coughing and mucus hypersecretion. Since their introduction 30 years ago, Inhalation corticosteroids and bronchodilators are still the cornerstone of asthma management nowadays, indicating that advancement in this field has somewhat stagnated. In recent years, we have started to appreciate that underneath the similar set of symptom manifestations, the asthma syndrome encompasses complex and heterogeneous pathophysiological mechanisms. The biologicals targeting specific type 2 cytokines have shown great clinical improvements in asthmatic patients and exemplify the importance of targeted therapy to advance asthma management.
This thesis can be regarded as a continuous effort to identify undiscovered pathophysiological traits in asthma. We here investigated the therapeutic potential of C1-inhibitor in both human and murine asthma models, considering that C1-inhibitor exerts immunomodulatory effects as a regulator of both the complement and contact system. These systems have been implicated to play a role in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of asthma, making them interesting for further research to elucidate their potential as candidates for targeted therapy.