Defective apoptotic cell clearance in asthma and COPD--a new drug target for statins?

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease represent increasingly common respiratory conditions with a clear unmet need for more effective and safer therapy. Airway inflammation is key to both asthma pathogenesis and exacerbations of symptoms in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Several lines of evidence are now emerging implicating the increased persistence of apoptotic cells in patients with chronic inflammatory lung diseases and that this is largely due to a combination of inhibition of, or defects in, the apoptotic process and/or impaired apoptotic cell removal mechanisms.