Blease Kate, Raymon Heather K
Celgene Corp, 4550 Towne Centre Court, San Diego, CA 92121, USA.
Curr Opin Investig Drugs. 2003 May;4(5):544-51.
The respiratory diseases asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exhibit common, key pathological features, including the development of airflow limitations such as thickening of the airway wall, and the presence of an inflammatory process. However, that is where their similarities end. A large number of medications for asthma are available to decrease inflammation and prevent or reverse airway constriction, while very few therapeutics, if any, exist for the effective management of COPD. Nonetheless, despite the availability of medications for asthma, the epidemic is continuing to increase and existing therapies offer little or no relief for chronic asthmatics. It is obvious that a high, unmet medical need remains for both asthma and COPD, and innovative therapeutic agents are urgently required. New therapies need to be developed to target not only the inflammatory component of asthma and COPD, but also the remodeling aspects of these diseases. This review summarizes the emerging treatments for chronic asthma and COPD, from early discovery to late clinical stages, and discusses the therapeutic rationale behind these treatments. We believe that there is still much to be learned about the mechanisms involved in the development and treatment of these debilitating respiratory diseases, however, much promise lies in the future of these new therapeutics.
呼吸系统疾病哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）具有一些共同的关键病理特征，包括出现气流受限，如气道壁增厚，以及存在炎症过程。然而，它们的相似之处仅止于此。有大量治疗哮喘的药物可用于减轻炎症并预防或逆转气道收缩，而针对COPD有效治疗的药物却极少，即便有也寥寥无几。尽管如此，尽管有治疗哮喘的药物，但哮喘的流行仍在持续增加，现有疗法对慢性哮喘患者几乎没有缓解作用。显然，哮喘和COPD都存在尚未满足的高度医疗需求，迫切需要创新治疗药物。需要开发新的疗法，不仅针对哮喘和COPD的炎症成分，还要针对这些疾病的重塑方面。本综述总结了从早期发现到后期临床阶段针对慢性哮喘和COPD的新兴治疗方法，并讨论了这些治疗方法背后的治疗原理。我们认为，对于这些使人衰弱的呼吸系统疾病的发病机制和治疗方法，仍有许多有待了解之处，不过，这些新疗法的未来充满希望。
