New treatment regimes for virus-induced exacerbations of asthma.

This review will focus on the role of viruses as causes of asthma exacerbations. The article will briefly review the current literature supporting this view, with a special focus on human rhinovirus (RV), the main virus associated with exacerbations of asthma. The review will then refer to possible strategies for treatment, and will include discussion on treatment with specific anti-viral therapy and type I interferon as a treatment for RV. The review will also include a discussion on current therapies for asthma, such as glucocorticosteroid and beta(2) agonist therapy alone and in combination and why this may be relevant to virus-induced exacerbations of asthma. Finally, the potential for future anti-inflammatory/immunomodulatory therapies with a focus on NF-kappaB inhibition will be discussed.