STOP accelerating lung aging for the treatment of COPD

Life expectancy is assumed to rise continuously and consequently global burden of age-associated diseases is expected to increase. All vital organs begin to lose some function during aging with different rates, and the same happens on the lung. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs, which progresses very slowly and the majority of patients are therefore elderly. COPD is a major and increasing global health problem with enormous amount of expenditure of indirect/direct health care costs, and therefore, there is urgent need to clarify the molecular mechanism of COPD and develop novel treatments. We here hypothesize that environmental gases, such as cigarette smoke and kitchen pollutants, may accelerate the aging of lung or worsen aging-related events in the lung, leading to defective resolution of inflammation, reduced anti-oxidant capacity and defective disposal of abnormal proteins, and this consequently induces progression of COPD. Recent studies identified some anti-aging small molecules (geroprotectors) that may open up new avenues for the treatment of COPD. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.