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More than 300 experts in respiratory diseases have gathered this weekend in Madrid in the 6th edition of NeumoChiesi, which has become a reference forum in pneumology and, once again, has been a scientific and participation success. The meeting, which has been organized by Chiesi laboratories with the endorsement of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), has consisted of a look into the future in research and treatment of respiratory diseases and for this has had a select group of international experts.
"In this edition we have tackled very novel topics, such as the application of Big Data in real clinical practice or the use of supercomputing in medical research, which will lead us to a new paradigm in the study and understanding of respiratory diseases. Chronicles ", says Dr. Julio Ancochea, Head of the Pneumology Service of the Hospital La Princesa (Madrid).
Applied to real clinical practice, the Big Data allows to collect the information and experience of a large number of patients treated with the drug to be studied and to evaluate the efficiency of the active principle in a real environment, taking into account multiple variables that can not be considered in a clinical trial. "Taking advantage of the enormous capacity of processing and analyzing large amounts of data from diverse sources provided by Big Data represents a great qualitative leap in the treatment of respiratory diseases, allowing to determine to a greater extent the effectiveness of prescribed drugs", explains Dr. Julio Ancochea.
Dr. Víctor Guallar, ICREA research professor at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-National Center for Supercomputing (BSC-CNS), explained the possibilities offered by the application of supercomputing in medical research thanks to the speed of bioinformatic analysis. Guallar is part of the team that has created a bioinformatic method to predict the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs against different mutations of HIV, an advance that allows to improve the treatment of this disease.
Dr. David Ramos, a pulmonologist at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, explained the advances in his research on how the use of mesenchymal stem cells rapidly reduces inflammation of the smooth muscle in the airways of mice to which previously they had induced asthma. Everything indicates that this population of cells may be free of pro-remodeling effects and also reversed the remodeling of smooth muscle in the respiratory tract.
Dr. Peter Sterk, of the Academic Medical Center of Amsterdam, presented the latest advances in the identification of phenotypes and endotypes in the treatment of severe asthma. "Asthma is a complex disease and as such the identification of phenotypes and endotypes is key to the application of more personalized treatments according to the type and subtype of asthma that the patient suffers," says Dr. Ancochea.
In recent years, different phenotypes of the disease have been identified based on a set of observable clinical parameters (symptoms, exacerbations, response to treatment, progression of the disease and risk of death), which differentiate some asthmatic patients from others. The term endotype is a more recent concept and responds to a new attempt to order the great variability of the disease, its clinical complexity and its basic mechanisms. Endotype is a subtype of a disease that is defined functionally and pathologically by the same molecular mechanism.
Records and cohort studies play a key role in the investigation of respiratory diseases. Dr. Montse Vendrell, from the University Hospital of Girona Dr. Josep Trueta, focused her presentation on the first results of the European Registry of bronchiectasis. On the other hand, Dr. Francisco Casas-Maldonado, from the University Hospital Complex of Granada, spoke about the Spanish Registry of patients with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency: REEDAT.
Dr. Nicolas Roche, from the Cochin Hospital AP-HP in Paris, and Dr. Jean Bourbeau from the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) in Montreal explained how important cohort studies are for research and personalized medicine in COPD ( Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
