Efficacy and Safety Study of Omalizumab (Xolair®) to Treat Chronic Urticaria

Summary

Chronic urticaria can be defined as the occurrence of widespread daily or almost daily wheals for at least 6 weeks, which may be accompanied by angioedema. While the wheals are transient, the resolution of angioedema is slower than wheals and could take up to 72 hours. The natural course of chronic urticaria is self-limited, with spontaneous remissions and occasional relapses. The investigators calculated a 0.6% (95% CI(Confidence Interval): 0.4-0.8) prevalence in a population study. It has a great impact on patients' quality of life. In a recent national survey on patients attending Allergy Department, chronic urticaria was the disease with greater impact on mental quality of life out of all allergic diseases. In spite of the high morbidity of this disease and the impact in quality of life, there is no available treatment. Last guidelines recommend initiating treatment with antihistamine and if there is no response to increase the dose off-label up to four-fold; systemic corticosteroids are also recommended in short tapering and if no response, the only treatment with clinical evidence to be employed is cyclosporine. As additional data, the treatment cost of this disease has been calculated in 2047$/year. In past years it has been employed the monoclonal humanized anti-Immunoglobulin IgE (iGE) antibody (Omalizumab) to treat moderate to severe asthma with good results. The rationale for this approach in chronic urticaria is that Omalizumab inhibits the binding of IgE to the high affinity IgE receptor (FceRI) which decreases the FceRI expression on the surface of mast cells and basophils so that immunoglobulin G cross linking of the alpha subunit and basophil degranulation is prevented.The hypothesis the investigators are working on is that monoclonal IgE antibody Omalizumab could be effective in controlling chronic urticaria symptoms in patients non respondent to conventional therapy. The investigators hypothesize that Omalizumab is able to revert the basophil or mast cell activation present in chronic urticaria.

Timeline

Start

2012-03

Primary completion

2016-02

Completion

2017-06

Publications

• Background Ferrer M, Gamboa P, Sanz ML, Goikoetxea MJ, Cabrera-Freitag P, Javaloyes G, Berroa F, Kaplan AP. Omalizumab is effective in nonautoimmune urticaria. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2011 May;127(5):1300-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2010.12.1085. Epub 2011 Feb 11. No abstract available.
• Background Gaig P, Olona M, Munoz Lejarazu D, Caballero MT, Dominguez FJ, Echechipia S, Garcia Abujeta JL, Gonzalo MA, Lleonart R, Martinez Cocera C, Rodriguez A, Ferrer M. Epidemiology of urticaria in Spain. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2004;14(3):214-20.
• Background Ferrer M. Epidemiology, healthcare, resources, use and clinical features of different types of urticaria. Alergologica 2005. J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2009;19 Suppl 2:21-6.
• Background Mathias SD, Crosby RD, Zazzali JL, Maurer M, Saini SS. Evaluating the minimally important difference of the urticaria activity score and other measures of disease activity in patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2012 Jan;108(1):20-24. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2011.09.008. Epub 2011 Nov 2.
• Background Saini S, Rosen KE, Hsieh HJ, Wong DA, Conner E, Kaplan A, Spector S, Maurer M. A randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging study of single-dose omalizumab in patients with H1-antihistamine-refractory chronic idiopathic urticaria. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2011 Sep;128(3):567-73.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2011.06.010. Epub 2011 Jul 18.
• Background Valero A, Herdman M, Bartra J, Ferrer M, Jauregui I, Davila I, del Cuvillo A, Montoro J, Mullol J, Sastre J, Canonica GW, Baiardini I. Adaptation and validation of the Spanish version of the Chronic Urticaria Quality of Life Questionnaire (CU-Q2oL). J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2008;18(6):426-32.

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