Jens-Ulrik Stæhr Jensen says: “Patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), still do not have a good prognosis. Medical therapy is by large, unchanged in many years. Likewise, the understanding of the mechanisms that lead to worsening of the disease is not sufficient. Traditional medicines include corticosteroids, which may increase the risk of diabetes, osteoporosis and infections. We will test two new strategies of preventing acute flares in COPD:

1) one in which hypertension in the lung circulation is controlled, thereby attempting to improve the stability in the disease and preventing flares in the disease; and

2) another strategy in which we will use a blood sample (biomarker) to substantially reduce the number of dosages of corticosteroids, thereby aiming to reduce the serious side-effects these drugs sometimes carry.
Additionally, we will explore the biological and infectious backgrounds for acute flares in the disease and the consequences of these mechanisms for other bodily tissues and organs.”