Role of Oxidative and Nitrative Stress and Histone De-acetylation in Rhinovirus Induced Acute Exacerbations of COPD

慢性阻塞性肺疾病(COPD)还是吸烟者？在英国，肺是一个日益严重的问题，而且已经是导致死亡和残疾的最常见原因之一。慢性阻塞性肺病占直接医疗费用的8亿多万。其中70%的费用与急性发作有关。COPD患者也害怕急性发作，因为它们会导致严重的呼吸困难、长期住院或死亡。目前的治疗方法在治疗或预防急性发作方面都不好。因此，迫切需要新的治疗方法。慢性阻塞性肺疾病与肺部炎症有关，随着疾病的进展，炎症会变得更严重。急性发作也涉及肺部炎症，但对其发生机制知之甚少。大多数急性发作是由普通感冒病毒引起的，这些病毒会进入胸部？我们计划对病毒诱导的慢性阻塞性肺疾病急性发作进行详细研究，以了解在这些发作过程中开启肺部炎症的分子。通过确定在这些发作期间增加肺部炎症的分子，我们应该能够确定用于预防和治疗COPD急性发作的新疗法的开发靶点。这样做将大大减少COPD患者遭受的痛苦，并降低死亡率和医疗成本。

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or smokers? lung is a growing problem and already one of the commonest causes of death and disability in the UK. COPD accounts for over #800 million in direct healthcare costs. Seventy percent of these costs are related to acute attacks. Acute attacks are also dreaded by COPD sufferers, as they lead to severe breathlessness, prolonged hospitalisation or death. Current therapies are not good at either treatment or prevention of acute attacks. New approaches to therapy are therefore urgently needed. COPD is associated with inflammation in the lung, which gets worse as the disease progresses. Acute attacks also involve inflammation in the lung but how this occurs is very poorly understood. Most acute attacks are caused by common cold viruses, which ?go to the chest?. We plan to carry out detailed studies of virus induced acute attacks of COPD, to understand the molecules switching on inflammation in the lung during these attacks. By identifying the molecules that increase lung inflammation during these attacks, we should be able to identify targets for the development of new therapies for both prevention and treatment of acute attack of COPD. So doing would greatly reduce distress suffered by COPD patients, as well as reducing mortality and health care costs.