Methods for improving drug efficacy
AssigneeNuvaira, Inc.
InventorMartin L. Mayse
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides methods for improving drug efficacy in a patient having an obstructed airway in a lung. Such methods modulate nerve activity in the autonomic nervous system of a patient to reduce obstruction of an airway in a lung of the patient prior to administering a drug to the patient. These methods are especially useful in improving efficacies of bronchodilators in treating obstructive lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Claims26
A method for improving drug efficacy in a patient having an obstructive lung disease, comprising:
- administering a therapeutically effective dose of an inhaled anticholinergic drug to the patient, wherein the inhaled anticholinergic drug has a reference efficacy when given as an initial bronchodilator, and a second reference efficacy when given as a second bronchodilator, wherein the patient has undergone, prior to the administration of the inhaled anticholinergic drug, a denervation procedure that includes injuring, either temporarily or permanently, a nerve trunk extending along a wall of an airway or a bronchial branch of the vagus nerve to modulate nerve activity in the autonomic nervous system of the patient by preventing acetylcholine from influencing postjunctional activities to reduce airway obstruction in at least one obstructed airway in a lung of the patient, and wherein a post-treatment efficacy of the inhaled anticholinergic drug following said denervation procedure is greater than the second reference efficacy of the inhaled anticholinergic drug when given as a second bronchodilator.
A method for treating a patient having an obstructive lung disease, comprising:
- (a) performing a denervation procedure to modulate nerve activity in an autonomic nervous system of the patient by preventing acetylcholine from influencing postjunctional activities to reduce obstruction in a distal airway in a lung of the patient, wherein the denervation procedure includes injuring, either temporarily or permanently, a nerve trunk extending along a wall of an airway or a bronchial branch of the vagus nerve;
- and
- (b) subsequently administering a therapeutically effective dose of an inhaled anticholinergic drug while the obstruction is reduced in the distal airway such that the inhaled anticholinergic drug is delivered to the distal airway,
- wherein steps (a) and (b) have a treatment efficacy greater than a reference efficacy of the inhaled anticholinergic drug, wherein the reference efficacy of the inhaled anticholinergic drug is defined as an efficacy of the inhaled anticholinergic drug after the inhaled anticholinergic drug has been administered as a second bronchodilator after administration of a first bronchodilator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.