Rockinghorse Children’s Charity is expanding access to the world’s first clinic for treating childhood asthma using innovative precision medicine approaches.

More than 1.1 million children in the UK are currently receiving treatment for asthma. The condition is usually treated with inhalers, but until recently, this has been generally untargeted, with similar approaches being used regardless of the child’s individual characteristics or environment.

This ‘one size fits all’ approach may mean that some children don’t respond to treatments in the most effective way. When this happens, it can be difficult to know why the same treatments do not work in the same way for every child.

However, this research has found that there are ways to help target the exact type of treatment that’s right for each individual child.

Rockinghorse Children’s Charity has previously funded some initial research by Professor Somnath Mukhopadhyay and his team at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, which developed the personalised approach to treatment based on the genotype of the individual child. This led to the development of a specialist pilot clinic at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, using this approach to find the best way to treat children with asthma.

Professor Mukhopadhyay said, “Rockinghorse’s funding has been very important in supporting the first ever role out of a personalised medicine led clinic in children’s asthma. We hope this will lead to information that can encourage the NHS to consider adopting these practices nationwide.”  

Testing a child to determine their genetic makeup can reveal what medications won’t work for them and, crucially, the ones that will. This means that each child has a better chance of receiving more appropriate treatments for their condition.

This work has resulted in interest at the national level. The NHS is currently discussing how we can study cost-effectiveness, with the aim of making these treatments accessible for children more widely across the UK.

Anyone who has experienced asthma, whether as an adult or a child, will understand the impact it can have on many aspects of life. It can stop them from playing sports, having a pet, or even doing simple things like walking to school or climbing the stairs.

These new treatments for severely affected children have proved life-changing. One child who previously struggled with controlling his asthma reported his breathing capacity to have transformed virtually overnight after receiving genotype-directed personalised treatment.

Similar improvements have also been reported by other children receiving personalised care.

The research has also been used to create a shift in awareness of these new treatment options. This is now improving clinical practice, informing General Practitioner training in the UK, and is formalised within international treatment guidelines in Australia.

However, despite the success of this initial work, the option to receive personalised medicine treatments remains widely unknown to patients, the public, and other medical practitioners outside of these clinics.

The next stage of this work’s work is based on spreading the word about these new treatments. This aims to raise public awareness and encourage patient engagement so that more children and families can benefit from this transformative research.

Donna Holland, Rockinghorse CEO, said, “Asthma can have a profound impact on a child, stopping them from enjoying so many of the things that children enjoy. It can mean avoiding pets and other animals, finding sport challenging and suffering from allergic reactions to something as simple as cut grass or flowers.

“But with more access to this cutting-edge Precision medicine treatment, children with asthma will be better supported, and they, and their families, will have access to better, more effective care, support and treatment.

“We are so proud to be able to lead the way with this world-class clinic in Sussex. Rockinghorse Children’s Charity has a long-standing involvement and support of precision medicine research and its implementation for asthma and allergies at the “Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton. This game-changing project expands the support and services available to children and young people with asthma all over Sussex.”

To find out more about Rockinghorse’s work or other projects they are funding, visit their website at www.rockinghorse.org.uk.

image: Olivia Cottingham, Dr Tom Ruffles and Professor Somnath Mukhopadhyay