Authors : Deepak Talwar, Pradyut Waghray, Agam Vora, S K. Jindal, V Rajesh
DOI : 10.18231/2581-4222.2019.0005
Volume : 4
Issue : 1
Year : 2019
Page No : 15-23
India contributes an extremely high percentage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality estimated to be amongst the highest in the world; i.e. more than 64.7 estimated age standardized death rate per 100,000 amongst both genders. COPD is associated with recurrent periods of acute worsening of respiratory symptoms, termed as acute exacerbations (AE) of COPD. Though, conventional treatment for COPD includingantimicrobial therapy, bronchodilators and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are available, however, no treatment except lung transplantation significantly improves the lung function or decrease mortality. SinceCOPD is associated with defective immune responses; therefore, management of COPD should be based on drugs which target the immunological pathways. Pidotimod is an immunostimulant that acts on the innate as well as adaptive immune system has been extensively studied in patients with AECOPD. Pidotimod has shown promising immunostimulatory effects in conditions with underlying cause of suppressed cell-mediated immunity to certain extent, such as chronic bronchitis and recurrent respiratory tract infection (RRTI) in both children and adults with a good tolerability profile. In this review article, we aimed to highlight and revisit the role of various immunostimulants with a special focus on clinical studies of Pidotimod and its beneficial effects in adults with exacerbations of COPD.
Keywords: Acute exacerbations (AE); Chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD); Pidotimod and Immunostimulants.