scholarly journals Aberrant Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Protein Expression in the Development of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (21) ◽  
pp. 11963
Author(s):  
Noof Aloufi ◽  
Aeshah Alluli ◽  
David H. Eidelman ◽  
Carolyn J. Baglole

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an incurable and prevalent respiratory disorder that is characterized by chronic inflammation and emphysema. COPD is primarily caused by cigarette smoke (CS). CS alters numerous cellular processes, including the post-transcriptional regulation of mRNAs. The identification of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as main factors engaged in the regulation of RNA biology opens the door to understanding their role in coordinating physiological cellular processes. Dysregulation of post-transcriptional regulation by foreign particles in CS may lead to the development of diseases such as COPD. Here we review current knowledge about post-transcriptional events that may be involved in the pathogenesis of COPD.

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Michael C. Ferrera ◽  
Wassim W. Labaki ◽  
MeiLan K. Han

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disorder with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite its prevalence, COPD is underdiagnosed, and many patients do not receive a diagnosis until the disease is clinically advanced. Recent basic science and clinical research have focused on the early physiologic and pathobiologic changes in COPD with the hopes of improving diagnosis, providing targets for disease-modifying therapy, and identifying patients most likely to benefit from early intervention. Available treatments for COPD have grown substantially in the past 20 years with the introduction of new oral and inhaled medications as well as novel surgical and bronchoscopic procedures. This article summarizes some of the recent advances in our understanding of disease pathogenesis and treatment paradigms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (16) ◽  
pp. 2791-2800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flora Pirozzi ◽  
Kai Ren ◽  
Alessandra Murabito ◽  
Alessandra Ghigo

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive respiratory disorder characterized by irreversible chronic inflammation and airflow obstruction. It affects more than 64 million patients worldwide and it is predicted to become the third cause of death in the industrialized world by 2030. Currently available therapies are not able to block disease progression and to reduce mortality, underlying the need for a better understanding of COPD pathophysiological mechanisms to identify new molecular therapeutic targets. Recent studies demonstrated that phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling is prominently activated in COPD and correlates with an increased susceptibility of patients to lung infections. PI3Ks have thus emerged as promising alternative drug targets for COPD and a wide array of pan-isoform and isoform-selective inhibitors have been tested in preclinical models and are currently being evaluated in clinical studies. Here, we summarize the recent knowledge on the involvement of PI3K enzymes in the pathophysiology of COPD, and we discuss the most recent results arising from the preclinical as well as the clinical testing of PI3K inhibitors as novel therapeutics for COPD.


2020 ◽  
pp. 175791392096078
Author(s):  
KA Ansari ◽  
N Keaney ◽  
F Farooqi

Purpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disorder that affects health outcomes on multiple levels including overall wellbeing. More specifically, factors such as spiritual wellbeing, and psychological, mental and motivational status which may be at least as important as others, have been rarely studied. This article reports the method of validating a new wellness assessment questionnaire and the status of several wellness domains in patients with COPD. Methods: The study consisted of two phases: first, the development of a new Wellness Questionnaire with the help of focus groups; second, the validation and use of the questionnaire in a cohort of patients with COPD. For focus groups, healthy people ⩾45 years of age with no known comorbidity as well as people with a clinical diagnosis of COPD were invited to participate in the study. Results: Thematic analysis of findings from focus groups and original cohort respondents highlighted some factors that appear to influence wellness status. Five domains were explored as potential markers of wellness in patients with COPD. Quantitative analysis with Spearman correlation demonstrated a significant correlation between Physical/Personal Wellness and other markers of COPD progression such as Global Initiative Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD; 0.006), force expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1%; 0.01), health-related quality of life (0.009), multidimensional BOD score and quartile (0.003 and 0.02). Conclusion: The findings suggest that a combination of personal, physical, emotional, mental and other psychological factors is responsible for negative COPD outcomes. While there is a need to validate this new wellness questionnaire in further research, it incorporates new markers of wellness that could benefit management of COPD.


Author(s):  
Akor, Alexander Agada ◽  
Obaseki Daniel ◽  
Bamidele Adeniyi ◽  
Gregory Efosa Erhabor

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disorder commonly assessed by spirometry and health related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaires. COPD assessment test (CAT) is a new questionnaire used for HRQoL evaluation especially in a clinic setting. Aims: To assess HRQoL using the CAT, and to determine the relationship of CAT to other measures of COPD such as pulmonary function test (PFT), dyspnea and six minutes walking distance test (6MDWT) among patients with COPD in Nigeria. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional study.                  Methods: Sixty stable patients with a clinical and spirometric diagnosis of COPD according to the GOLD criteria were recruited into the study. Spirometry was performed according to ATS/ERS guidelines. Health status, dyspnea and functional capacity of the patients were assessed using the CAT questionnaire, modified medical research council (MMRC) dyspnea scale and six-minute walking distance (6MDWT) respectively. Results: The mean age was 68.8 years ± 10.3. Sixty percent of the study participants were male. The mean BMI was 21.6 ± 4.8 kg/m2, 37(61.7%) of the patients were ex-smokers, 3.3% were current smokers and 35% were never smokers. In terms of frequency of exacerbations 18.3% had ≤ 1 per year and 5.0% had ≥ 2 per year. The CAT was strongly associated with 6MWDT (r = 0.85P < 0.001), FEV1% predicted (r= 0.67, P< 0.001) and with MMRC (r=0.64, p<0.01). Conclusions: CAT scores correlated well with percent FEV1, dyspnea and exercise tolerance which measures various aspect of COPD. It may serve as an easy to administer sensitive tool in assessing stable COPD in outpatient clinics especially in low resource countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 864-872
Author(s):  
Fernanda Borowsky da Rosa ◽  
Adriane Schmidt Pasqualoto ◽  
Catriona M. Steele ◽  
Renata Mancopes

Introduction The oral cavity and pharynx have a rich sensory system composed of specialized receptors. The integrity of oropharyngeal sensation is thought to be fundamental for safe and efficient swallowing. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are at risk for oropharyngeal sensory impairment due to frequent use of inhaled medications and comorbidities including gastroesophageal reflux disease. Objective This study aimed to describe and compare oral and oropharyngeal sensory function measured using noninstrumental clinical methods in adults with COPD and healthy controls. Method Participants included 27 adults (18 men, nine women) with a diagnosis of COPD and a mean age of 66.56 years ( SD = 8.68). The control group comprised 11 healthy adults (five men, six women) with a mean age of 60.09 years ( SD = 11.57). Spirometry measures confirmed reduced functional expiratory volumes (% predicted) in the COPD patients compared to the control participants. All participants completed a case history interview and underwent clinical evaluation of oral and oropharyngeal sensation by a speech-language pathologist. The sensory evaluation explored the detection of tactile and temperature stimuli delivered by cotton swab to six locations in the oral cavity and two in the oropharynx as well as identification of the taste of stimuli administered in 5-ml boluses to the mouth. Analyses explored the frequencies of accurate responses regarding stimulus location, temperature and taste between groups, and between age groups (“≤ 65 years” and “> 65 years”) within the COPD cohort. Results We found significantly higher frequencies of reported use of inhaled medications ( p < .001) and xerostomia ( p = .003) in the COPD cohort. Oral cavity thermal sensation ( p = .009) was reduced in the COPD participants, and a significant age-related decline in gustatory sensation was found in the COPD group ( p = .018). Conclusion This study found that most of the measures of oral and oropharyngeal sensation remained intact in the COPD group. Oral thermal sensation was impaired in individuals with COPD, and reduced gustatory sensation was observed in the older COPD participants. Possible links between these results and the use of inhaled medication by individuals with COPD are discussed.


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