Advances in genome-wide association study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by irreversible airflow obstruction and chronic airway inflammation, caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. It is the third leading cause of death worldwide. In recent years, researchers have applied the genome-wide association study (GWAS) and identified a large number of genetic variants associated with lung functions and potential drug targets for treating COPD. In this review, we summarize the results of GWAS studies and perform a review of the literature since 2007 to highlight the progress of GWAS on COPD. We discuss the challenges, the underlying mechanisms, and the possible drug targets, thereby providing insights on the pathogenesis and potential treatment strategies for COPD.慢性阻塞性肺疾病(chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD)是一种以不完全可逆的气流受限为主要特征的慢性气道炎症,是一种由遗传因素和环境因素共同作用的复杂疾病,也是世界主要致死疾病之一。近年来,随着全基因组关联研究(genome-wide association study, GWAS)的不断深入,研究者们发现了大量与肺功能或COPD相关的遗传变异或基因位点、药物靶点等。本文综述了2007年以来世界范围内针对肺功能或COPD的GWAS方面的研究工作及其进展综述,分析了可能存在的药物靶点,并探讨了COPD在全基因组关联研究中面临的挑战和困难,为深入研究COPD发病机制提供新思路。.