Drug offers hope on lung disease
Times Staff and Wire Reports
An experimental drug protected mice exposed to tobacco smoke from developing chronic lung disease, raising hope for a treatment in humans, U.S. researchers reported Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
CDDO-Im helped activate a gene called Nrf2 that bolsters the lung’s ability to fight off chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis and some types of asthma.
Researchers exposed mice to cigarette smoke for six months to simulate the lung damage seen in emphysema. Mice that received the drug were protected and also had dramatically improved heart function compared with the untreated mice.
