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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): From Pathogenesis to Therapy

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2024 | Viewed by 2064

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, 1-3 Isabel la Catolica, 50009-Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; obstructive sleep apnea; lung disease

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common syndrome of progressive airflow obstruction due to long-term inhalation of noxious substances. The pathology of COPD is characterized by emphysematous destruction of the lung and airways remodeling leading to airflow limitation. The pathogenesis of COPD is complex and heterogeneous and multiple mechanisms such as inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis. In addition, other factors such as genetic susceptibility, in utero events, preterm birth, recurrent respiratory infections, and exposure to air pollution also play a large part in the development of COPD.

To reduce the enormous disease burden of COPD, it is essential to clarify the pathogenesis of COPD, and to develop new personalized treatments. Now, medical management of COPD is largely limited to reduce symptom burden instead to use disease-modifying medicines now available for other degenerative diseases.

In this special issue of IJMS we want to be a vehicle for the publication of the best original research articles dealing with novel finding on genetics, environmental, infection, and other  physio-pathogenic mechanism that promote COPD development. Articles reporting novel diagnostics techniques, disease management and natural history of the disease are also welcomed.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Sex differences in COPD from biological mechanisms to therapy.
  • Personalizing therapy in COPD
  • Biomarkers of severity and biomarkers of progression of COPD
  • Pathophysiological processes that lead to emphysema and/or chronic bronchitis
  • Biological pathways that lead to different clinical presentations

Prof. Dr. José M. Marin
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • COPD
  • COPD mechanisms
  • COPD pathology
  • COPD pharmacology
  • cytokine biology
  • biomarkers
  • early diagnosis
  • inflammation
  • COPD management
  • new therapies

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2832 KiB  
Article
Multi-Omics Analysis Identified Drug Repurposing Targets for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
by Fang Wang and Carlos A. Barrero
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(20), 11106; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms252011106 - 16 Oct 2024
Viewed by 732
Abstract
Despite recent advances in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) research, few studies have identified the potential therapeutic targets systematically by integrating multiple-omics datasets. This project aimed to develop a systems biology pipeline to identify biologically relevant genes and potential therapeutic targets that could [...] Read more.
Despite recent advances in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) research, few studies have identified the potential therapeutic targets systematically by integrating multiple-omics datasets. This project aimed to develop a systems biology pipeline to identify biologically relevant genes and potential therapeutic targets that could be exploited to discover novel COPD treatments via drug repurposing or de novo drug discovery. A computational method was implemented by integrating multi-omics COPD data from unpaired human samples of more than half a million subjects. The outcomes from genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome COPD studies were included, followed by an in silico interactome and drug-target information analysis. The potential candidate genes were ranked by a distance-based network computational model. Ninety-two genes were identified as COPD signature genes based on their overall proximity to signature genes on all omics levels. They are genes encoding proteins involved in extracellular matrix structural constituent, collagen binding, protease binding, actin-binding proteins, and other functions. Among them, 70 signature genes were determined to be druggable targets. The in silico validation identified that the knockout or over-expression of SPP1, APOA1, CTSD, TIMP1, RXFP1, and SMAD3 genes may drive the cell transcriptomics to a status similar to or contrasting with COPD. While some genes identified in our pipeline have been previously associated with COPD pathology, others represent possible new targets for COPD therapy development. In conclusion, we have identified promising therapeutic targets for COPD. This hypothesis-generating pipeline was supported by unbiased information from available omics datasets and took into consideration disease relevance and development feasibility. Full article
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14 pages, 2219 KiB  
Article
Relationship between Respiratory Microbiome and Systemic Inflammatory Markers in COPD: A Pilot Study
by Carme Casadevall, Sara Quero, Laura Millares, Rosa Faner, Borja G. Cosío, Germán Peces-Barba, Ady Castro-Acosta, Concepción Montón, Alexandre Palou, Sergi Pascual-Guardia, Alvar Agustí, Joaquim Gea, Eduard Monsó and on behalf of the BIOMEPOC group
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(15), 8467; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25158467 - 2 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1107
Abstract
The respiratory microbiome may influence the development and progression of COPD by modulating local immune and inflammatory events. We aimed to investigate whether relative changes in respiratory bacterial abundance are also associated with systemic inflammation, and explore their relationship with the main clinical [...] Read more.
The respiratory microbiome may influence the development and progression of COPD by modulating local immune and inflammatory events. We aimed to investigate whether relative changes in respiratory bacterial abundance are also associated with systemic inflammation, and explore their relationship with the main clinical COPD phenotypes. Multiplex analysis of inflammatory markers and transcript eosinophil-related markers were analyzed on peripheral blood in a cohort of stable COPD patients (n = 72). Respiratory microbiome composition was analyzed by 16S rRNA microbial sequencing on spontaneous sputum. Spearman correlations were applied to test the relationship between the microbiome composition and systemic inflammation. The concentration of the plasma IL-8 showed an inverted correlation with the relative abundance of 17 bacterial genera in the whole COPD cohort. COPD patients categorized as eosinophilic showed positive relationships with blood eosinophil markers and inversely correlated with the degree of airway obstruction and the number of exacerbations during the previous year. COPD patients categorized as frequent exacerbators were enriched with the bacterial genera Pseudomonas which, in turn, was positively associated with the severity of airflow limitation and the prior year’s exacerbation history. The associative relationships of the sputum microbiome with the severity of the disease emphasize the relevance of the interaction between the respiratory microbiota and systemic inflammation. Full article
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