EDITORIALS
Azithromycin therapy for neutrophilic airways disease: myth or magic?
1 Respiratory Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK
2 Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr A M Condliffe, Respiratory Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Box 157 Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK; amc46@cam.ac.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The anti-inflammatory potential of macrolides was first appreciated with the successful use of erythromycin in the treatment of diffuse panbronchiolitis, a disease principally affecting the Japanese, and characterised by a persistent neutrophilic inflammatory infiltrate of the bronchi. While there are only limited data on the efficacy of other macrolides in treating this condition,1 the observation has generated considerable interest in examining the role of macrolides in other respiratory diseases where chronic airways inflammation is a prominent feature.
Azithromycin (AZM) is a 15-membered macrolactam ring macrolide which, in randomised controlled studies, has demonstrated a beneficial role in the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF)2–5 despite its lack of direct bactericidal or bacteriostatic activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. More recent (albeit smaller) studies have suggested a role for AZM in the treatment of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS)6 and asthma,7 with a common finding in both being its ability to reduce airway neutrophilia. Such
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