TY - JOUR
T1 - Why new biology must be uncovered to advance therapeutic strategies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
AU - Nguyen, Jennifer M.K.
AU - Robinson, Douglas N.
AU - Sidhaye, Venkataramana K.
N1 - Funding Information:
Our work is supported by the National Institutes of Health (HL124099, HL151107, GM66817, and F31 HL145910).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Physiological Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by the destruction of alveolar tissue (in emphysema) and airway remodeling (leading to chronic bronchitis), which cause difficulties in breathing. It is a growing public health concern with few therapeutic options that can reverse disease progression or mortality. This is in part because current treatments mainly focus on ameliorating symptoms induced by inflammatory pathways as opposed to curing disease. Hence, emerging research focused on upstream pathways are likely to be beneficial in the development of efficient therapeutics to address the root causes of disease. Some of these pathways include mitochondrial function, cytoskeletal structure and maintenance, and airway hydration, which are all affected by toxins that contribute to COPD. Because of the complexity of COPD and unknown targets for disease onset, simpler model organisms have proved to be useful tools in identifying disease-relevant pathways and targets. This review summarizes COPD pathology, current treatments, and therapeutic discovery research, with a focus on the aforementioned pathways that can advance the therapeutic landscape of COPD.
AB - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by the destruction of alveolar tissue (in emphysema) and airway remodeling (leading to chronic bronchitis), which cause difficulties in breathing. It is a growing public health concern with few therapeutic options that can reverse disease progression or mortality. This is in part because current treatments mainly focus on ameliorating symptoms induced by inflammatory pathways as opposed to curing disease. Hence, emerging research focused on upstream pathways are likely to be beneficial in the development of efficient therapeutics to address the root causes of disease. Some of these pathways include mitochondrial function, cytoskeletal structure and maintenance, and airway hydration, which are all affected by toxins that contribute to COPD. Because of the complexity of COPD and unknown targets for disease onset, simpler model organisms have proved to be useful tools in identifying disease-relevant pathways and targets. This review summarizes COPD pathology, current treatments, and therapeutic discovery research, with a focus on the aforementioned pathways that can advance the therapeutic landscape of COPD.
KW - Airway and alveolar epithelium
KW - Cigarette smoke
KW - Cytoskeleton
KW - Mitochondria
KW - Model organisms
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U2 - 10.1152/AJPLUNG.00367.2020
DO - 10.1152/AJPLUNG.00367.2020
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33174444
AN - SCOPUS:85100094405
VL - 320
SP - L1-L11
JO - American Journal of Physiology
JF - American Journal of Physiology
SN - 1040-0605
IS - 1
ER -