Emphysema News and Research

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Emphysema is a debilitating disease that afflicts more than three million Americans. The disease is caused primarily by smoking and leads to a progressive, irreversible breakdown of lung tissue. This breakdown reduces the amount of lung tissue available for gas exchange and also impairs the lung's ability to inflate and deflate normally. As the disease advances, the most damaged areas of the lung over inflate within the chest cavity, trapping air and preventing the healthier lung areas from functioning normally. Eventually breathing becomes more difficult, leaving patients constantly feeling out-of-breath.

UT Southwestern Researchers Develop Multi-Organ Gene Editing Strategy

A gene-editing delivery system developed by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers simultaneously targeted the liver and lungs of a preclinical model of a rare genetic disease known as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), significantly improving symptoms for months after a single treatment, a new study shows.

23 Jun 2025

Epidemiology and Genetic Underpinnings of Clonal Hematopoiesis

A comprehensive new study from deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, published today in Nature Genetics, provides insights into the epidemiology and somatic and germline genetics of clonal hematopoiesis.

7 Nov 2023

Researchers provide an entirely new perspective on tissue oxygenation

Cardiovascular medicine, hematology and pulmonary medicine may soon have the first-ever therapies to correct poor tissue oxygenation, a key driver of disease in millions, including peripheral artery disease, sickle cell disease, heart failure, stroke, emphysema and many others.

2 Mar 2023

Discovery of a lung stem cell subset provides opportunity for new COPD treatments

Respiratory viral infections pose significant morbidity and mortality to patients with chronic lung diseases like emphysema and COPD, causing exacerbations that drive destruction of normal lung tissue, and leading to one of the most common diagnoses for hospital admissions.

24 Feb 2023

Genetic mutation appears to be a predisposing factor for COPD independent of smoking

In 2019, the WHO positioned chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) third in the global ranking of causes of death.

From Institut Pasteur 15 Dec 2021

Inhibition of necroptosis may be a new therapeutic approach to treating COPD

Research shows that inhibiting necroptosis, a form of cell death, could be a novel therapeutic approach for treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung condition, also known as emphysema, that makes it difficult to breathe.

21 Jun 2021

Cooking with wood may increase risk of developing lung damage

Advanced imaging with CT shows that people who cook with biomass fuels like wood are at risk of suffering considerable damage to their lungs from breathing in dangerous concentrations of pollutants and bacterial toxins.

26 Nov 2020

Researchers uncover a new cellular mechanism for disposing of misfolded proteins

About 30 years ago, Dr. Richard Sifers set out on a journey to discover why people with a rare condition known as alpha1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency present with high variation in the severity of liver disease.

21 Oct 2020