Objective
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a global health problem of pandemic proportion, and is expected to become a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide within 15 years.
Furthermore, new evidence indicating that exposure to air pollutants increases the risk of developing the disease is shifting the perception of COPD as solemnly a smokers disease towards becoming a general health concern in urban areas. COPD is primarily an inflammatory disease of the peripheral airways.
However, in contrast to other chronic airway inflammatory diseases, e.g. asthma, treatment with inflammatory cascade inhibitors are largely ineffective in COPD. No efficacious treatments currently exist to prevent the inflammatory progression of COPD, which invariably leads to impaired lung function and premature death. The mechanisms underlying the disease progression are not well understood, yet very few resources have been allocated to the study of COPD.
The main objective of the proposed study is to identify lipid- and protein-mediators critical in the pathological mechanisms underlying COPD. In accordance with the 1st thematic priority of FP6, proteomics and bioinformatics technology will be utilized to combat major disease: Through the use of state-of-the-art proteomics and metabolomics methodology, alterations of the proteome and inflammatory mediators in response to the disease progression will be quantified. Furthermore, the use bioinformatics applications and pathway construction will aid in a global understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying COPD.
The results from this project are expected to have major effects upon the field of inflammation-associated diseases and will potentially develop new diagnostic techniques for early stage lung disease, enabling clinicians to apply intervention at earlier stages, thereby greatly reducing the costs to society and saving lives. A secondary accomplishment may be identification of novel pharmaceutical targets for COPD.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepneumologyasthma
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomics
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinflammatory diseases
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringair pollution engineering
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European FellowshipsCoordinator
STOCKHOLM
Sweden