Genomics of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD); Exploring the SNPs of Protease-Antiprotease Pathway

The COPD has been an important respiratory condition that affects people worldwide and its incidence has been alarming. The increasing incidence of this disorder has been attributed to global industrialization and environmental pollution. Although the exposures to environmental pollutants and smoking have been important triggers, the genetic component of individuals has been shown to be important for development and progression of COPD. Recent literature reported that protease-antiprotease imbalance to be important in etiopathogenesis of COPD. The enzymes namely neutrophil elastase and matrix metalloprotienases are considered to be foremost proteolytic molecules released by neutrophils and macrophages during inflammatory events in COPD. Normally, the lungs remain protected from the destructive effect of these two antiproteases by α(1)-antitrypsin (α(1)AT) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) respectively. In this review, we are trying to highlight the work by various research groups in exploring the SNPs of various genes of inflammatory pathways and the protease-antiprotease pathway, which may have some degree of association with COPD.