Unifying thoracic biomarkers: surfactant protein-D and beyond

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disorder that affects 300 million people worldwide and is responsible for 3 million deaths annually. Currently, there are no accepted biomarkers of COPD, which has impaired drug development and management of patients with COPD. Pneumoproteins, which are proteins synthesized predominantly in the lungs, are promising blood biomarkers because they have high specificity for lung disease. The most promising is surfactant protein-D, which is synthesized largely in Type 2 pneumocytes, and its blood concentrations have been associated with COPD and with certain clinical end points such as mortality. In this paper, we discuss surfactant protein-D and other pneumoproteins as promising biomarkers of COPD.

Keywords::

• biomarkers
• blood
• COPD
• lung disease
• pneumoproteins
• surfactant

Financial & competing interests disclosure

DD Sin has received honoraria for speaking engagements and research grant support from GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, which are makers of inhaled corticosteroids. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.