An Improved Inhaled Mucolytic to Treat Airway Muco-obstructive Diseases.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Airways obstruction with thick, adherent mucus is a pathophysiologic and clinical feature of muco-obstructive respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and cystic fibrosis (CF). Mucins, the dominant biopolymer in mucus, organize into complex polymeric networks via the formation of covalent disulfide bonds, which govern the viscoelastic properties of the mucus gel. For decades, inhaled N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been used as a mucolytic to reduce mucin disulfide bonds with little, if any, therapeutic effects. Improvement of mucolytic therapy requires the identification of NAC deficiencies and the development of compounds that overcome them.

Objectives

Elucidate the pharmacological limitations of NAC and test a novel mucin-reducin

SUBMITTER: Ehre C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6353008 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature