Research project will investigate new treatment for lung damage in chronic lung disease
Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast are leading a new project that will investigate a potential new treatment for chronic lung disease, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
COPD is an incurable condition which causes severe breathlessness and affects around 1.3 million people in the UK, with 42,000 people affected in Northern Ireland, although this number may be much higher.
This new research will aim to identify the role of cathepsin S (CTSS), a protein which is found at elevated levels in the lungs of people with COPD, and how its inhibition may reduce inflammation and lung damage in this disease.
Chronic inflammation, lung damage and infection are characteristic features of chronic lung diseases such as COPD. Bronchial epithelial cells within the lungs play a vital role in protecting against infection by launching an antimicrobial and inflammatory response in the respiratory tract.
Irritants and pollutants, such as cigarette smoke, are known to alter bronchial epithelial function, and prolonged periods of exposure can result in an elevated inflammatory response, increased cell death, cell sloughing and reduced capacity to deal with infection. This in turn may result in lung damage and the development of diseases such as COPD.
Professor Taggart, project lead and researcher from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast, explains: “In preliminary experiments, we previously found that inhibition of CTSS can reduce the inflammatory response and cell death in primary bronchial epithelial cells.
“This new research project will further confirm these results using lab models of chronic cigarette smoke exposure on CTSS activity and will assess the effects on lung inflammation, lung function and lung damage. The aim would be to take these CTSS inhibitors into the clinic to treat patients with COPD.”
The study is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and involves researchers from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine (Dr Sinéad Weldon) and the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research (Dr Rich Williams) at Queen’s, as well as researchers from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in New York (Dr Pat Geraghty) and the Mater Hospital (Dr Joe Kidney), part of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust of Northern Ireland.
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Media inquiries to Sian Devlin at s.devlin@qub.ac.uk