Main description:

Lung diseases are leading causes of death and disability globally, with about 65 million people suffering from COPD, and 334 million from asthma. Each year, tens of millions of people develop and can die from lung infections such as pneumonia and TB. Systemic inflammation may induce and exacerbate local inflammatory diseases in the lungs, and local inflammation can in turn cause systemic inflammation. There is increasing evidence of the coexistence of systemic and local inflammation in patients suffering from asthma, COPD, and other lung diseases, and the co-morbidity of two or more local inflammatory diseases often occurs. For example, rheumatoid arthritis frequently occurs together with, and promotes the development of, pulmonary hypertension. This co-morbidity significantly impacts quality of life, and can result in death for some patients.

Current treatment options for lung disease are neither always effective, nor condition-specific; there is a desperate need for novel therapeutics in the field. Additionally, the molecular and physiological significance of most major lung diseases is not well understood, which further impedes development of new treatments, especially in the case of coexistent lung diseases with other inflammatory diseases. Great progress has been made in recent years in many areas of the field, particularly in understanding the molecular geneses, regulatory mechanisms, signalling pathways, and cellular processes within lung disease, as well as basic and clinical technology, drug discovery, diagnoses, treatment options, and predictive prognoses.

This is the first text to aggregate these developments. In two comprehensive volumes, experts from all over the world present state-of-the-art advances in the study of lung inflammation in health and disease. Contributing authors cover well-known as well as emerging topics in basic, translational, and clinical research, with the aim of providing researchers, clinicians, professionals, and students with new perspectives and concepts. The editors hope these books will also help to direct future research in lung disease and other inflammatory diseases, and result in the development of novel therapeutics.

Contents:

Table of Contents

1 Can GPCRs be targeted to control inflammation in asthma?

2 Cellular and molecular processes in pulmonary hypertension

3 INFLAMMATORY PATHWAYS IN SARCOIDOSIS

4 Innate Immune Responses and Pulmonary Diseases

5 Interstitial Lung Disease associated with Connective Tissue Diseases

6 Molecular mechanisms of vascular damage during lung injury

7 Neurotrophin Regulation and Signaling in Airway Smooth Muscle

8 Novel Thoracic MRI approaches for the assessment of pulmonary physiology and inflammation

9 Overview on Interactive Role of Inflammation, Reactive Oxygen Species and Calcium signaling in Asthma, COPD and Pulmonary Hypertension

10 Protein S-palmitoylation and lung diseases

11 Redox role of ROS and inflammation in pulmonary diseases

12 Semaphorin3E/PlexinD1 axis in asthma: what we know so far

13 Serine protease inhibitors to treat lung inflammatory diseases

14 Sex and Gender Differences in Lung Disease

15 Sex hormones and lung inflammation

16 Synopsis of Clinical Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)