Lung research hints at fresh therapy

Evidence of blood vessel damage in the lungs of smokers with early lung disease could lead researchers towards new drugs.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have often suffered so much damage to their lungs by the time they are diagnosed that there is little that can be done to help them.

The illness, a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is often caused by long-term smoking.

" The tragedy of COPD is that by the time symptoms are bad enough to make the patient come to see us, the damage has already been done "

Professor Alyn Morice, University of Hull

The only therapy is giving oxygen, which delivers some benefits but cannot prevent eventual deterioration and death from the illness.

It is the most common cause of respiratory-related death in the UK - and 56% of all working days lost among men are due to it, costing the economy many billions of pounds each year.
There is debate among doctors about whether to try to develop treatments for the lungs of the patients - or the blood vessels supplying the lungs.

The latest research, published in the European Respiratory Journal, could help push research towards the blood vessels.

A team from the University of Barcelona in Spain looked at lung samples from smokers with "moderate" COPD.

They found telltale signs of the damage to pulmonary arteries - the blood vessels which supply the lungs.

This "remodelling" of the arteries suggests that changes caused by cigarette smoking may occur at an early stage in COPD .

Potential drugs to control this remodelling process have been tested in animals, and some experts are convinced that they could be used to at least relieve the symptoms and slow the deterioration of COPD sufferers.

Funding fight
Professor Alyn Morice, a COPD expert from Hull University, has supported this theory for some time - but has been unable to convince pharmaceutical companies to give him funding to test potential drugs.

He said: "These findings mean that we can concentrate on the blood supply to the lungs as a potential target for drug therapies.

"The tragedy of COPD is that by the time symptoms are bad enough to make the patient come to see us, the damage has already been done.

"Every 40-year-old should have their lung function checked by their GP, and if problems show up, they could be advised to stop smoking before substantial damage occurs."

[BBC News Online]