SynthesisPloS one2013
Efficacy of anti-interleukin-5 therapy with mepolizumab in patients with asthma: a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 43 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 102 citations in OpenAlex.
- Anti-IL-5 therapies for asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Safety and Efficacy of Mepolizumab in Patients with Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis.Pulmonary medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Anti-interleukin 5 Therapy for Eosinophilic Asthma: a Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2018Pooled it
- Anti-IL5 therapies for asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Efficacy and Safety of Anti-Interleukin-5 Therapy in Patients with Asthma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of mepolizumab in severe eosinophilic asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
- Recent Developments in Monoclonal-Antibody-Based Biologic Therapy for Severe Refractory Eosinophilic Asthma.Antibodies (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Interleukin-13 Treatment of Living Lung Tissue Model Alters the Metabolome and Proteome-A Nano-DESI MS Metabolomics and Shotgun Proteomics Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Very long-term data on patients with severe eosinophilic asthma treated with mepolizumab: a case series.Drugs in context · 2024Article
- Stepwise Approach in Asthma Revisited 2023: Expert Panel Opinion of Turkish Guideline of Asthma Diagnosis and Management Group.Thoracic research and practice · 2023Article
- Asthma exacerbations are associated with a decline in lung function: a longitudinal population-based study.Thorax · 2023Article
- Critical evaluation of asthma biomarkers in clinical practice.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Review
- Severe asthma: adding new evidence - Latin American Thoracic Society.ERJ open research · 2021Review
- Real-life effectiveness of mepolizumab in patients with severe refractory eosinophilic asthma and multiple comorbidities.The World Allergy Organization journal · 2020Article
- Single-Cell and Population Transcriptomics Reveal Pan-epithelial Remodeling in Type 2-High Asthma.Cell reports · 2020Article
- Lung eosinophils increase vagus nerve-mediated airway reflex bronchoconstriction in mice.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2020Article
- Biological Therapies of Severe Asthma and Their Possible Effects on Airway Remodeling.Frontiers in immunology · 2020Review
- A comparison of biologicals in the treatment of adults with severe asthma - real-life experiences.Asthma research and practice · 2020Article
- Diacylglycerol kinase ζ promotes allergic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness through distinct mechanisms.Science signaling · 2019Article
- Role of innate lymphoid cells in allergic diseases.Allergy and asthma proceedings · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInterleukin (IL)-5 is believed to be a key cytokine in eosinophil inflammatory infiltration in asthma. Previous clinical trials have evaluated the efficacy and safety of mepolizumab, a monoclonal antibody against IL-5, in patients with asthma. However, most of these studies were small, the conclusions were inconsistent, and the precise effects are therefore debatable.
methodsA meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials was conducted to evaluate the effect of intravenous infusion of mepolizumab on clinical outcomes in patients with asthma. Trials were searched in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, Scopus, reviews, and reference lists of relevant articles. The outcome variables analyzed included eosinophil counts in blood and sputum, airways outcome measures, exacerbations, asthma control, and quality of life scores.
resultsSeven studies met final inclusion criteria (total n = 1131). From the pooled analyses, mepolizumab significantly reduced eosinophils in blood (MD -0.29×10(9)/L, 95% CI -0.44 to -0.14×10(9)/L, P = 0.0001) and sputum (MD -6.05%, 95% CI -9.34 to -2.77%, P = 0.0003). Mepolizumab was also associated with significantly decreased exacerbation risk than placebo (OR 0.30, 95%CI 0.13 to 0.67, P = 0.004), and with a significant improvement in the scores on the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) (MD 0.26, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.49, P = 0.03) in patients with eosinophilic asthma. There were no statistical differences between the groups with respect to FEV1, PEF, or histamine PC20 (all P>0.05), and a non-significant trend for improvement in scores on the Juniper Asthma Control Questionnaire (JACQ) (MD -0.21, 95% CI -0.43 to 0.01, P = 0.06) in the mepolizumab group was observed.
conclusionsMepolizumab reduces the risk of exacerbations and improves quality of life in patients with eosinophilic asthma, but no significant improvement in lung function outcomes was observed. Further research is required to establish the possible role of anti-IL-5 as a therapy for asthma.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.