Oxidative stress and macrophages: driving forces behind exacerbations of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease?

Oxidative stress is a common feature of obstructive airway diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Lung macrophages are key innate immune cells that can generate oxidants and are known to display aberrant polarization patterns and defective phagocytic responses in these diseases. Whether these characteristics are linked in one way or another and whether they contribute to the onset and severity of exacerbations in asthma and COPD remain poorly understood. Insight into oxidative stress, macrophages, and their interactions may be important in fully understanding acute worsening of lung disease. This review therefore highlights the current state of the art regarding the role of oxidative stress and macrophages in exacerbations of asthma and COPD. It shows that oxidative stress can attenuate macrophage function, which may result in impaired responses toward exacerbating triggers and may contribute to exaggerated inflammation in the airways.

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A study on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlaps among patients with obstructive airway diseases

IP Indian Journal of Immunology and Respiratory Medicine ◽

10.18231/j.ijirm.2021.016 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 71-74

Author(s):

Venkatesh B.C ◽

Raju C.H

Keyword(s):

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Pulmonary Disease ◽

Smoking History ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Airway Diseases ◽

History Of ◽

Sputum Eosinophils ◽

Obstructive Airway Diseases ◽

Asthma Group

There is a need to re-evaluate the concept of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as separate conditions, and to consider situations when they may coexist, or when one condition may evolve into the other. This is prospective, observational and descriptive study conducted at MNR Medical College and Hospital, Sangareddy, India from June 2020 to December 2020 among chronic airway diseases who were classified into three groups (COPD, Asthma, and Asthma and COPD overlap (ACO)). Patients with COPD and ACO were diagnosed according to GOLD guidelines 2020 and patients with asthma were diagnosed according to Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines 2020. : Regarding the age difference between groups, it was found that patients who were diagnosed as having COPD and ACO were with mean age of 57.23±8.54 and 56.26±7.73 years, respectively. The men age of patients of Asthma was 57.51±8.43. In our study, 28 (30%) patients as having COPD, 39 (45.5%) patients were diagnosed as having ACO, 23 (24.4%) patients were diagnosed as having asthma. In our study comparison of groups regarding history of atopy. We found that 71.7% of ACO group, 78.2% of asthma group and 25% of COPD group had a positive history of atopy. Comparison of study groups regarding sputum eosinophils revealed that 30.7 % of ACO group, 73.9% of asthma group and 32.1% of COPD group had positive sputum eosinophils. ACO represents a large percentage among patients with obstructive airway diseases. It shares some features of asthma such as atopy and positive sputum eosinophilia, and some features of COPD like old age of presentation and positive smoking history.

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