Future treatment for COPD: targeting oxidative stress and its related signal.

COPD is pathogenically associated with oxidative stress, which originates not only from cigarette smoke, but also from hypoxia, infection, inflammation, and ageing. It is the reason that therapeutic strategies aim at attenuation of oxidative stress, its sources, or intracellular signals and pro-inflammatory network of its downstream. This review discusses the pathogenesis of COPD and its current therapy in viewpoint of oxidative stress and further provides the perspectives for new treatment strategies in COPD and recent patents that could develop into novel therapeutics.