Mucoactive agents to alter mucus properties in cystic fibrosis
Symposium
Venue: Time:
Rhône 3 Friday 5 June, 08:30 – 10:00
Session description:
Objectives: At the end of the session, the participant will be able to:
understand and explain how mucin polymers contribute to mucus dysfunction in the CF lung
appreciate how directly targeting mucin polymer structure and interactions might alleviate mucus obstruction of CF airways
Moderator: Dave Thornton, UK, Tel: +44 161 275 5647 Moderator: Jean Luc Desseyn, FR
Understanding how mucins contribute to mucus obstruction in the lung Dave Thornton, UK
22 min
A mucin-specific domain that governs the mesh size of the mucin network. A new target in cystic fibrosis? Jean Luc Desseyn, FR
22 min
Novel mucolytics for cystic fibrosis Gunnar Hansson, SE
22 min
A glycopolymer that alters mucus properties and improves mucociliary clearance in cystic fibrosis Steven M. Rowe, US
Steven M. Rowe, MD, MSPH
Professor
Department of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Cell Developmental and Integrative Biology
Director, Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center
,Nancy R. and Eugene C. Gwaltney Family Endowed Chair in Medical Research
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Rowe is a respected academic physician scientist – a pioneer in the field of personalized therapeutics for CF, cutting-edge discovery in airway disease biology, and translational research in COPD. He is an international authority in the design and conduct of clinical trials targeting the basic CF defect, and has made key advances in the measurement and interpretation of CFTR function in humans and animals. In a related effort, Dr. Rowe has advanced both the molecular and clinical understanding of suppression of premature termination codons, representing an exciting strategy for treatment of genetic diseases caused by nonsense mutations, which is responsible for ~10% of all genetic diseases. Dr. Rowe has characterized that COPD patients with chronic bronchitis exhibit ‘acquired CFTR dysfunction’ through a pathway that causes delayed mucociliary clearance and confers chronic bronchitis. Dr. Rowe co-invented one-micron resolution optical coherence tomography (Micro-OCT) that captures 3D imaging in real-time at the cellular level, and with his collaborators is the first to bring this technique in vivo in humans. Micro-OCT imaging is highly sensitive to the epithelial function of airway tissues and can provide simultaneous and non-invasive measurements of the functional microanatomy of the airway surface, significantly advancing our understanding of airway disease pathogenesis and therapeutic intervention. He presently has a laboratory of over 25 individuals, embracing lung research from basic discovery, to translational science, to clinical application.