HYPOTHESIZING IMMUNE CELL-BASED POSSIBLE CURATIVE THERAPIES FOR CIGARETTE SMOKE-INDUCED EMPHYSEMA

Abstract

In Emphysema (EM), one of the diseased states of lung disorder Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the alveoli walls loose shape and or damage leading to the poor exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in blood. Such a disorder is accomplished by the activation of enzyme Macrophage elastase (MME) in Macrophage which breaks down the protein elastin in the extracellular matrices of the alveoli walls. The objective of this paper is to hypothesize a possible cure for EM. Because pro-inflammatory cytokine inhibitors have not shown promise in treating EM, I have engineered the therapeutics (against EM) around two of the anti-inflammatory cytokines Interleukin-4 and Interleukin- 10. The same Macrophage which exhibits pro-inflammatory activation state can be made to exhibit anti-inflammatory activation state by exposing it to anti-inflammatory cytokines. By assuming that anti-inflammatory activation state of Macrophage can reverse elastin breakdown, and borrowing ideas from chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (approved for treating many cancers) I have designed my therapeutics.