Inhaling a biologic moisturizing drug improves lung function in patients with severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to a new study from the National Institutes of Health and other collaborators.
Hyaluronan is a sugar secreted by living tissue. Providing it to hospitalized patients decreased the amount of time they spent in intensive care requiring breathing support and the number of days they spent in the hospital.
“Inhaled hyaluronan qualifies as a stimulating aid for patients with exacerbated COPD, as it is safe and easy to administer,” said co-senior author Raffaele Incalzi, M.D., of the Campus Bio-Medico University and Teaching Hospital, in Rome. It is a localized treatment and will not interfere with systemic drugs, he said.
Subsequent lab tests in airway cells from emphysema patients also found that mucus flowed more easily after administering hyaluronan.
The study was conducted in Italy because the drug already is approved in that country for use as an airway moisturizer. The authors intend to test it as a COPD treatment in the United States as well, to better judge which conditions and dosing are most beneficial, reported co-author Stavros Garantziotis, M.D., medical director of the Clinical Research Unit at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Hyaluronan also is used in cosmetics as a skin moisturizer and in some nasal sprays.
Full findings were published online in Respiratory Research.
