HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at London, UK or Virtually from your home or work.
COPD 2023

Yong Xiao Wang

Yong Xiao Wang, Speaker at COPD 2023 Congress
Albany Medical College, United States
Title : Emerging prospective on molecular pathogenesis and therapeutic targets for COPD

Abstract:

Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a devastating common lung disease. It is the third leading cause of mortality in the world and will be the second leading cause of death by 2020. The current challenging tasks are that the molecular mechanisms for COPD remain largely unknown, and clinical therapeutic options are limited. A major characteristic of COPD is expiratory airflow limitation, which can be attributed to airway hyperresponsiveness and remodeling. We and other well-known scientists have unveiled that a very important player (VIP) in these two major cellular responses is an increase in intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) in airway smooth muscle cells (AMCs). Consistent with this view, bronchodilators including muscarinic receptor antagonists, β-adrenergic receptor agonists, and corticosteroids are used as the first-line drugs in the clinical treatment of COPD, and the functional role of all these forefront drugs is associated with their inhibition of the increased [Ca2+]i in ASMCs. Recent studies from our group and others suggest that multiple ion channels, particularly inositol trisphosphate receptor (IP3R)/Ca2+ release channel, ryanodine receptor (RyR)/Ca2+ release channel and canonical transient receptor potential-3 (TRPC3) channel, play a major role in initiation and maintenance of [Ca2+]i in ASMCs and thus are essential for airway hyperresponsiveness and remodeling in COPD and/or other pulmonary diseases. Equally interestingly, IP3R, RyR, and TRPC3 channels are highly sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS), and ROS are well known to mediate airway hyperresponsiveness and/or remodeling in COPD. We have further revealed that ROS are primarily produced by mitochondria and NADPH oxidase (NOX), but mitochondria are the primary site. Several antioxidants targeted at mitochondria and/or NOX are currently used in clinical trials and show potential effectiveness in the treatment of COPD. ROS may implement their roles in COPD by causing of oxidation of IP3R, RyR, and TRPC3 channels, leading to their hyperfunctions. We and other eminent investigators have further provided new evidence that virus-mediated shRNA-based genetic (specific) inhibition and highly selective pharmacological inhibitor of these channels may become more effective therapies for COPD.

Biography:

Dr. Yong-Xiao Wang has been a Full Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Albany Medical College (USA) since 2006. Dr. Wang obtained his MD at Wannan Medical University (China) and Ph.D. at Fourth Military Medical University. He received his postdoctoral training at the Technology University of Munich (Germany) and at the University of Pennsylvania (USA). In addition to his excellent teaching and services, he has had the intensive research training, expertise, leadership, motivation, and experience. His research interests have been primarily working on basic, translational and drug discovery research in cardiopulmonary biology and diseases. In particular, he has made many important findings in studies of cell calcium, ion channels, reactive oxygen species, neurotransmitter receptors, and protein kinases in cardiovascular and respiratory systems using complementary molecular, biochemical, physiological, pharmacological and genetic approaches at the molecular, organelle, cellular, tissue and organism levels in animals and human samples. Serving as the Principal Investigator, Dr. Wang has/had a number of NIH research awards, AHA Established Investigator Award, ADA Research Award, and other grants. As the corresponding author, first author and key contributor, he has had numerous publications in highly peer-reviewed journals including Nature Commun (impact factor: 14.290), Antioxid Redox Signal (8.209), Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (9.432), Nature (34.480), Circ Res (9.214), etc. As the editor, he has published several academic books in the field. Dr. Wang has also served as the editorial board member and/or section editor as well as the executive committee member and/or subcommittee chair for professional societies.

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