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London (pte043/05.04.2005/15:45) - Scientists are developing a treatment for a form of one of the most common killer lung diseases. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, a team from London's Imperial College http://www.imperial.ac.uk has discovered why chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is resistant to steroid therapy. The researchers have found a way to combat the problem and have started clinical trials of a potential therapy.
COPD is an umbrella term covering a range of lung diseases, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It is estimated to affect six per cent of the UK population, and is the fourth most common cause of death in the country. Steroids would normally be effective at treating inflammatory diseases such as COPD, but COPD patients do not respond to steroid therapy. Inflammation is caused by specific genes triggering the production of certain key chemicals. It is possible to block inflammation by switching off these genes, using an enzyme called Histone Deacetylase 2 (HDAC2). Steroids usually aid this process by mopping up HDAC2, and targeting the appropriate genes. However, the Imperial team found that HDAC2 levels are very low in COPD patients, so steroids have little chance to have any effect. Working on lung cells, they found that they could raise levels of HDAC2, and therefore allow steroids to do their work, by administering low doses of a cheap and widely available drug, theophylline.
"COPD kills tens of thousands of people in the UK every year and currently we can only treat the symptoms and not the underlying problem of inflammation of the lungs," said lead researcher Peter Barnes. "Our work has finally provided an explanation for steroid resistance in COPD and has allowed us to identify ways to combat this. We hope that the clinical trials of theophylline will be successful so that we can finally offer an effective therapy to COPD sufferers," he added.
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