Pulmonary administration of phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor is a curative treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by alveolar regeneration.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an intractable pulmonary disease, causing widespread and irreversible alveoli collapse. The discovery of a low-molecular-weight compound that induces regeneration of pulmonary alveoli is of utmost urgency to cure intractable pulmonary diseases such as COPD. However, a practically useful compound for regenerating pulmonary alveoli is yet to be reported. Previously, we have elucidated that Akt phosphorylation is involved in a differentiation-inducing molecular mechanism of human alveolar epithelial stem cells, which play a role in regenerating pulmonary alveoli. In the present study, we directed our attention to phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)-Akt signaling and examined whether PI3K inhibitors display the pulmonary alveolus regeneration. Three PI3K inhibitors with different PI3K subtype specificities (Wortmannin, AS605240, PIK-75 hydrochloride) were tested for the differentiation-inducing effect on human alveolar epithelial stem cells, and Wortmannin demonstrated the most potent differentiation-inducing activity. We evaluated Akt phosphorylation in pulmonary tissues of an elastase-induced murine COPD model and found that Akt phosphorylation in the pulmonary tissue was enhanced in the murine COPD model compared with normal mice. Then, the alveolus-repairing effect of pulmonary administration of Wortmannin to murine COPD model was evaluated using X-ray CT analysis and hematoxylin-eosin staining. As a result, alveolar damages were repaired in the Wortmannin-administered group to a similar level of normal mice. Furthermore, pulmonary administration of Wortmannin induced a significant recovery of the respiratory function, compared to the control group. These results indicate that Wortmannin is capable of inducing differentiation of human alveolar epithelial stem cells and represents a promising drug candidate for curative treatment of pulmonary alveolar destruction in COPD.