Trial of thromboxane receptor inhibition with ifetroban: TP receptors regulate eicosanoid homeostasis in aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease

This clinical trial compared one month of treatment with ifetroban (a medication that blocks the thromboxane A2 receptor) to placebo in patients with AERD, to see if the ifetroban treatment decreased the severity of aspirin-induced reactions. Unfortunately, there was a small signal that actually the treatment with ifetroban actually worsened patients’ reactions to aspirin. This was unexpected, and to further understand why, additional studies were done, that showed that ifetroban inhibited the production of prostaglandin E2 and increased the levels of cysteinyl leukotrienes, which likely explains why our patients had a negative response to it. Read more here