Newly Discovered Fatty Acids May Lead To Novel Treatments For COPD And Asthma

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Also Included In: COPD
Article Date: 17 Sep 2007 - 20:00 PDT

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Eoxins may be another piece in the puzzle helping us to understand the mechanism for airway inflammation. Professor Hans-Erik Claesson, Karolinska Institutet, presented new data on eoxins at the annual meeting of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Stockholm. The discovery could pave the way for new medicines addressing respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD.

Eicosanoids is the collective name for a large number of fatty acids, all having important functions in the body. The most well-known are the prostaglandins, which for example regulate blood flow and parturition, but also cause fever and pain.

The recently discovered eoxins are mainly produced by cells in the respiratory tissue, where they can cause inflammation and oedema leading to airway obstructions.

"Today, corticosteroids are being used to treat the inflammatory component in asthma and COPD, but this discovery could lead to the development of medicines with a completely new mechanism of action", says Professor Hans-Erik Claesson, Karolinska Institutet.

Another new group of eicosanoids is the lipoxins, which have anti-inflammatory activity. Patients suffering from severe asthma may have reduced production of these substances. In the future, severe asthma could possibly be treated with new medicines based on lipoxins.

Nobel Laureate chaired the Symposium

Sweden has since long been in a leading position in the eicosanoid research field. The seminar on eicosanoids at the ERS conference was led by Professor Bengt Samuelsson. He was, together with Sune Bergström and John R Vane, awarded the Nobel price 25 years ago for his research on prostaglandins. Prostaglandins were originally discovered by another Swedish Nobel Laureate, Ulf von Euler.

Based on Professor Bengt Samuelsson's research, a completely new class of asthma medicines was developed, the so called anti-leukotrienes. These drugs block the production or action of leukotrienes, which contribute to the inflammation and bronchospasm in asthma.

Many important drugs act by affecting either the production or action of eicosanoids. Common pain killers, the so called NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) mediate their effect by blocking the production of prostaglandins in the body.

Facts about asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways, which leads to breathing difficulties, for example after exposure to substances, which the patient is sensitive to. More than one in ten persons in Sweden suffers from asthma. It is most common among children.

Facts about COPD

Approximately 500 000 Swedes suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. COPD is a chronic inflammation in the airways, which can lead to slow suffocation and death. Globally COPD is the fifth cause of death, and is anticipated to within a near future climb to third place. Approximately 2 500 patients die each year in Sweden due to COPD.

http://www.ersnet.org