Airway diseases include diseases which effect the respiratory tract (e.g., lungs, mouth, nose, pulmonary, alveoli, pharynx, larynx, trachca, and bronchi). Airway diseases, such as asthma and COPD are a major health burden in the developed world.
Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR):
AHR is an exaggerated airway constrictive response to external triggers and is a major component of airway disease. AHR is a hallmark of asthma, but also occurs in many other airway diseases such as COPD. AHR is also known as bronchial hyperresponsiveness or airway hyperreactivity. Current treatment is non-specific and consists of bronchodilators (adrenergic or anticholigergiv) and immunosuppressants (corticosteroids).
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) (e.g., Asthma): see outline
Cystic fibrosis (CF):
CF is a hereditary (autosomal recessive) disease affecting the exocrine (mucus) glands of the lungs, liver, pancrease, and intestines, causing progressive disability due to multisystem failure. CF is caused by a mutation in a gene called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. The product of thse gene is a chloride ion channel important in creating sweat, digestive juices, and mucus. Thick mucus production in CF patients results in fequent lung infections. Lung disease results from clogging the airways due to mucosa buildup and resulting inflammation.
Refractory Chronic Cough (RCC):
Chronic cough affects about 28 million people and around 10 million suffer form RCC for over a year. RCC is a cough that lasts for more than 8 weeks, does not resond to treatmnet for an underlying condition and is otherwise unexplained. There is currently no effective treatment, with patients often cycling through other therapies and seeing specialists with no resolution.
Treatment:
–Inhibiting P2X3 Receptors:
—–Camplipixant (GlaxoSmith):
P2X3 is a validated biological target implicated in cough reflex hypersensitisation, and camlipixant is a highly selective P2X3 antagonist. Current clinical data show that by selectively inhibiting P2X3 receptors, camlipixant may reduce cough frequency for patients suffering from RCC with a relatively low incidence of dysgeusia, the taste disturbance adverse event associated with other medicines that broadly target the P2X2/3 receptor.