Video
Danny Eckert, PhD: Pharmacotherapies Reducing OSA Severity
Author(s):
Proof-of-concept studies using a targeted phenotypic approach to reduce obstructive sleep apnea severity are showing exciting results.
“It really does have to be this targeted approach of giving it [medications] to the right patients."
At the 24th Congress of the European Sleep Research Society in Basel, Switzerland, Danny Eckert, PhD, Neuroscience Research Australia, Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, sat down with NeurologyLive to discuss the recent identification of 3 key non-anatomical causes of obstructive sleep apnea: impaired upper airway dilator muscle function, a low respiratory arousal threshold, and an unstable respiratory control (high loop gain).
Eckert also mentioned that while continuous positive airway pressure is highly efficacious, it’s poorly tolerated with low adherence rates, and second-line therapies have variable and unpredictable efficacy. The identification of these non-anatomical phenotypes, however, have unlocked new targets for pharmacotherapy. Proof-of-concept studies are using new agents in a targeted phenotypic approach to reduce obstructive sleep apnea severity.
