PITTSBURGH, Jan. 18 -- The University of Pittsburgh has been awarded an estimated $13 million research grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop novel approaches that seek to increase our understanding of and improve outcomes for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a degenerative breathing disorder that is the fourth leading cause of death and the second leading cause of disability annually in the United States. The five-year grant establishes the University of Pittsburgh as a Specialized Center of Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR) in COPD. Such a center encourages basic science research findings to be directed more rapidly toward clinical problems.
Frank C. Sciurba, M.D., is principal investigator of the SCCOR grant, which entails three unique projects and three resource cores to support the research. Dr. Sciurba is associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of the Emphysema Research Center in the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine.
The grant has important clinical relevance because the NHLBI estimates that 12 million adults currently have a diagnosis of COPD, with an additional 12 million unaware that they have the disorder. COPD is a lung disease commonly related to smoking that diminishes breathing capacity over time and includes conditions such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
"COPD damages the lung tissue, expanding and breaking down the walls of air sacs and thickening small airways, which hinders air flow into the lungs and transfer of oxygen into the blood," explained Dr. Sciurba. "These studies will help us to better understand the disease process and possibly devise better treatment options for patients."
Each of the research projects capitalizes on findings of basic science and clinical research performed by the University of Pittsburgh Emphysema Research Center. This SCCOR focuses on advanced cellular and molecular investigations of lung tissue changes involved in COPD to increase understanding of disease progression. In addition to clinicians and scientists from the University of Pittsburgh, the projects are being undertaken with the collaboration of James Hogg, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of pathology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
"With advances in molecular genetics, we may be able to determine that COPD is actually two or more distinct processes," said Steve Duncan, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the pulmonary, allergy and critical care division of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a SCCOR co-investigator. "But using clinical and basic science studies together, looking at the molecular and cellular characteristics of the disease will help us to better define treatments."
Studies to be conducted through the center are:
University of Pittsburgh SCCOR studies will involve collaboration with other investigators in the departments of radiology, pharmacology and epidemiology and involves study subjects followed for previous research as well as additional patients recruited for SCCOR-specific project studies.
"COPD is a growing epidemic. In fact, the NIH has begun a campaign to raise public awareness of the disease," said Dr. Donahoe. "Even though smoking rates have been decreasing nationwide, rates remain among the highest in western Pennsylvania, where nearly a quarter of people still smoke, and there are millions of people who are at risk because they are former smokers."
Dr. Sciurba added, "Many people with early signs of COPD simply avoid activities they formerly enjoyed because of shortness of breath and other discomfort. Treatment can help, and we hope to find more and better treatments in the future."
CONTACT: Susan Manko, MankoSM@upmc.edu PHONE: (412) 647-3555 FAX: (412) 624-3184