Asthma clinical trials at University of California Health

This is a single-center study that will evaluate the safety and tolerability of removal of mucus plugs by bronchoscopy in patients with asthma. This protocol will also plan for the analysis of the features of the mucus plugs removed.

The Pulmonary Specialist-Health Coach Consultation (PuSHCon) study examines the implementation of health coach-assisted consultations to improve access to specialist care and implementation of specialist recommendations for patients with COPD, asthma, and asthma COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) for low-income and vulnerable patients seen at public health clinics. Three hundred sixty (360) patients from ten clinics will be enrolled in the study and randomized at the individual level to receive health coaching or usual care; 180 patients will receive usual care and 180 patients will receive the PuSHCon model.

This study evaluates 20% n-acetylcysteine (NAC) in the treatment of moderate-to-severe asthma that is complicated by mucus in the airway, as determined by CT imaging. The study is a crossover design, which means that half the study participants will get 20% NAC in the first 14-day treatment period and placebo in the next 14-day treatment period; and the other half will get placebo in the first 14-day treatment period and 20% NAC in the next 14-day treatment period.

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine if positive pressure during inspiration will improve penetration of aerosolized N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) into airway mucus plugs in the lungs of patients with asthma or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The main questions it aims to answer are: - Does delivery of aerosolized NAC with positive inspiratory pressure have a greater effect on mucus plug burden in the lungs than delivery of NAC without positive pressure. - Does delivery of aerosolized NAC with positive inspiratory pressure have a greater effect on lung function than delivery of NAC without positive pressure. Participants will be assigned (in a single blind design) to the NAC via jet nebulizer group or the NAC via AeroEclipse-VersaPAP nebulizer group. Participants will each complete 5 treatment visits over the course of 30 days. Each treatment visit will consist of two treatments of a 10% NAC (3 mL) and 2.5 mg albuterol (0.5mL) inhalation solution separated by 4 hours, via the nebulization method specific to their group.

This is an observational, clinic-based, single center study of 120 subjects. Participants will be comprised of patients seen in the outpatient faculty practice in ambulatory care at the UCSF Parnassus campus. Study investigators will enroll 20 healthy participants with no history of lung disease, 50 asthmatics who are newly prescribed therapeutic proteins for their asthma, and 50 asthmatics already being treated with therapeutic proteins for their asthma. Participants will be seen at 1 to 3 visits and provide blood samples at each visit.

This is a single-center study of 80 subjects with asthma including those with obesity and metabolic dysfunction (MD), those with obesity and without metabolic dysfunction, those with severe asthma and mucus plugging and those with severe asthma and without mucus plugging. Screening data will be reviewed to determine participant eligibility. Participants who meet all inclusion criteria will participate in a cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) visit to compare lung function markers and change in oxygen saturation between obese patients with and without MD and severe asthma patients with and without mucus plugging.

This is a cross-sectional study of up to 100 subjects who are undergoing clinically indicated sinus procedures to treat chronic rhinosinusitis. Participants will be asked to donate leftover sino-nasal secretions, sino-nasal tissue and blood as well as undergo partial characterization. As optional extensions of the main study, participants may also undergo a biopsy of extra sino-nasal tissue for additional tissue analysis and/or a more detailed characterization visit performed in the UCSF Airway Center Research Center (ACRC).