The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an incurable lung disease until now. The World Health Organization estimates that in 2020 it will be the third leading cause of mortality due to diseases in the world. Researchers at the Helmholtz Center Munich, however, have shown that COPD could be treated mice models. This discovery may allow the development of a treatment. The study results were published in the journal "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
COPD is a chronic systemic disease group, mainly caused by smoking, reaching the lungs. It results not fully reversible obstruction of these (hypersecretion of mucus and thickening of the walls), destruction of alveolar walls, fibrosis of the lining of the airways associated with loss of elasticity, and chronic inflammation of lungs. All that leads to a decrease in expiratory flow and leads most often to respiratory failure. The disease mainly affects people over 40 years.
Team Melanie Königshoff Centre of Pneumology of Helmholtz Centre Munich found that the Wnt signaling pathway [2] was inhibited in patients with COPD. They managed to reactivate the pathway in diseased mice and observed as emphysema [3] was reduced significantly and that lung function was improved. They thus concluded that the Wnt signaling pathway was involved in the repair process of the lungs and that its activation could be a future therapeutic approach for treatment of pulmonary emphysema.
"Our goal now is to understand the mechanism related to the Wnt pathway to more accurately able to develop specific therapeutic approaches, "said Melanie Königshoff.
[2] Wnt is a family of glycoproteins involved in embryogenesis and homeostasis of adult tissues. The Wnt signaling pathway is also known for his role in cancer. Wnt proteins maintain the undifferentiated state of stem cells.
[3] pulmonary emphysema is the expansion of the alveoli and destruction of their walls.
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[1] Original publication: "Activation Of The WNT / {beta}-Catenin Pathway Attenuate Experimental Emphysema, Am J Respir Crit Care Med. "Kneidinger N. et al. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine - 01/11/2010 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20889911
Melanie Königshoff - Helmholtz Centre Munich, Großhadern CPC, Max-Lebsche-Platz 31, 81377 München - Tel.: 498931874668 - email: melanie.koenigshoff @ Helmholtz-muenchen.de - http://www.cpc-munich.org/index.php? id = 10684
Source: idw
Dispatch, press release from the Helmholtz Centre Munich - 27/12/10 - http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news402988
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