* Genetic variant means salmeterol doesn't work as well

* Millions of kids with gene variant likely to be affected

* Gene test could help doctors personalise asthma treatment

By Kate Kelland

LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Testing children with asthma for a specific gene could help doctors avoid giving them common inhaler medicines that are unlikely to help and may make their condition worse, scientists said on Tuesday.

British researchers studying why certain asthma drugs taken by millions of children don't appear to benefit some patients said a gene called arginine-16 (Arg16) is key to determining which medicines work for some and not for others.

Having a particular change in this gene means a drug called salmeterol, a generic drug used in GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF - news) 's (GSK) Advair, Serevent and Seretide treatments, is unlikely to improve the condition and may exacerbate it, the scientists said.

"We have for the first time shown that personalised medicine can work in the field of children's asthma," said Somnath Mukhopadhyay of Brighton and Sussex Medical School, who led the work and presented his findings at a briefing in London.

Asthma affects more than 300 million people globally and is the world's most common children's chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness. Many children are prescribed salmeterol, a long-acting so-called beta-receptor stimulant, to ease symptoms.

But after finding in a large observational study published in 2009 that some children fail to respond to salmeterol, and linking that to the Arg16 gene, Mukhopadhyay's team decided to look closer. They conducted a genotyped study comparing salmeterol with another generic drug called montelukast.

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Gene test for asthmatic kids helps target treatment

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