Il danno ossidativo polmonare : un nuovo target nella strategia terapeutica in pneumologia

In the last years the interest about stress in basic and clinical research is increased and its role in the pathogenesis of respiratory disease is strong. In particular is clearly as the oxidative stress must modulate the lung inflammation in many pathophysiological process in the lung: the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) ate the most important pulmonary diseases where this biological mechanism plays an important role. In each of these diseases the oxidative stress can modulate the lung molecular pattern and cellular activity inducing a morphological and functional defects. Many study has been published in the previous years about the effect of antioxidant drugs with the evidence that they reduce the damage induced by radical oxygen substances (ROS). Both in COPD, asthma and IPF, therapy with antioxidant drugs has been demonstrated efficacy to improve biological, molecular and functional parameters with a similar improvement in clinical features. However, the data published in literature represent an important evidence that justify clinical use of antioxidant drugs in respiratory diseases.