LOX/LOXL in pulmonary fibrosis: potential therapeutic targets

Abstract

Lysyl oxidase (LOX) and lysyl oxidase-like proteins (LOXL), a family of extracellular matrix (ECM) crosslinking enzymes that have been recognised as playing an important role in fibrogenesis for more than 40 years, are logical targets for antifibrotic treatments. Pulmonary fibrosis, especially idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), is a progressive and lethal disease characterised by excessive deposition of ECM in the lung parenchyma. In this review, we discuss the current clinical approaches for IPF and review members of LOX family-LOX, LOXL1, LOXL2, LOXL3 and LOXL4 in IPF patients and in animal models of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Although these findings are controversial and require further validation, LOX/LOXL1/LOXL2 as potential therapeutic targets for IPF deserve continued attention. So far to our knowledge, LOXL3 or LOXL4 has not clearly shown specific therapeutic potential.

Keywords:

• Lysyl oxidase
• lysyl oxidase-like proteins
• pulmonary fibrosis
• idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• therapeutic targets

Acknowledgements

We apologise to all the authors whose work could not be cited due to space limitations. We also regret that we have had to cite some reviews instead of the original reports on account of the broad nature of this article. We thank Dr. Guangming Li and LetPub for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Research grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China [No 30772606] will support this manuscript publication