Bonnie H Yeung-Luk, Ara Wally, Carter Swaby, Sofia Jauregui, Esther Lee, Rachel Zhang, Daniel Chen, Sean H Luk, Nisha Upadya, Ethan Tieng, Kai Wilmsen, Ethan Sherman, Dheeksha Sudhakar, Matthew Luk, Abhishek Kumar Shrivastav, Shuo Cao, Baishakhi Ghosh, Stephanie A Christenson, Yvonne J Huang, Victor E Ortega, Shyam Biswal, Wan-Yee Tang, Venkataramana K Sidhaye
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major public health challenge that contributes greatly to mortality and morbidity worldwide. Although it has long been recognized that the epithelium is altered in COPD, there has been little focus on targeting it to modify the disease course. Therefore, mechanisms that disrupt epithelial cell function in COPD patients are poorly understood. In this study, we sought to determine if epigenetic reprogramming of the cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin, encoded by the CDH1 gene, disrupts epithelial integrity, and by reducing these epigenetic marks, we can restore epithelial integrity and rescue alveolar airspace destruction...
November 17, 2023: American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology