Prostanoid receptors as targets for asthma and COPD therapy

哮喘是一种肺部炎症性疾病，在西方世界影响很大比例的人口，是巨大的医疗负担，以胸闷和呼吸困难为特征。英国有520万哮喘患者，110万儿童(十分之一)和410万成年人(十二分之一)。平均每年有1400人死于哮喘，现在NHS每年平均花费哮喘8.89亿英镑。1990年，全球疾病负担研究将慢性阻塞性肺病列为全球第六大常见死亡原因，现在这一数字上升到第四位。在英国，COPD现在每年造成约3万人死亡，死亡率几乎是欧洲平均水平的两倍，去年COPD导致的女性死亡人数超过乳腺癌。炎症被认为是哮喘和COPD的发展和症状的核心。体内的一种自然产生的化学物质可以打开呼吸道，通过与一种或多种蛋白质家族的相互作用来减少炎症。不幸的是，这种化学物质也会引起咳嗽。这项研究的目的是试图确定哪些蛋白质参与了这种化学物质的有益反应，哪些参与了有害的咳嗽反应。希望这项工作可能会导致一种新药的发现，这种新药可以选择性地针对有益的过程，从而产生一种治疗方法，可以帮助这些患有这些衰弱疾病的患者。

Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the lung that affects a large percentage of the population in the Western world and represents a huge health care burden and is characterised by chest tightness and breathing difficulties. There are 5.2 million asthma sufferers in the UK, 1.1 million children (1 in 10) and 4.1 million adults (1 in 12). On average, 1400 people die from asthma each year, and asthma now costs the NHS an average of #889 million per year. The Global Burden of Disease studies ranked COPD as the 6th commonest cause of death worldwide in 1990 and this has now risen to 4th. In the UK COPD now causes about 30,000 deaths a year and mortality is almost double the European average, with COPD killing more women than breast cancer last year.Inflammation is believed to be central to the development and symptoms of asthma and COPD. A naturally occurring chemical in the body can open the airways and reduce the inflammation through interactions with one or more of a family of proteins. Unfortunately, this chemical also causes cough. The aim of this study is to try to determine which of the proteins are involved in the beneficial responses and which in the detrimental cough response of the chemical. The hope is that this work may lead to the discovery of a novel drug which could selectively target the beneficial processes leading to the production of a therapy that could help these patients who suffer from these debilitating diseases.