Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases are the main source of disease burden in Brazil. In 2011, the Brazilian Ministry of Health launched the Strategic Plan of Action for Management of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases focusing on population-based interventions to manage cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases mainly through fighting tobacco use, unhealthy diets,...

Respiratory diseases, always being a threat towards the health of people all over the world, are most tightly associated with immune system. Neutrophils serve as an important component of immune defense barrier linking innate and adaptive immunity. They participate in the clearance of exogenous pathogens and endogenous cell debris and play an essential role in the pathogenesis of many respirato...

Age-associated dysregulated immune and inflammatory responses are one of the major factors responsible for the prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases in the older population. Pulmonary dendritic cells (DCs) are present below the airway epithelial cells (AECs) and are critical in initiating effective immune responses to harmful pathogens while maintaining tolerance against harmless antigens....

We have read with interest the paper of Krauss–Etschmann et al. This is an important contribution to the current understanding of prenatal and early life events impacting chronic respiratory disease development and progression across the life cycle. A major challenge is to combine expertise in human conditions with complementary model systems. Better understanding of these links should allow no...

Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) are all pulmonary diseases which are characterized by chronic inflammation and an increase in mucus production. Excess mucus in the airways correlates with pathophysiology such as a decline in lung function and prolonged bacterial infections. New drugs to treat these chronic respiratory diseases are currently being de...

Chronic interstitial lung diseases in children represent a heterogeneous group of disorders of both known and unknown causes that share common histological features. Despite many efforts these diseases continue to present clinical management dilemmas, principally because of their rare frequency that limits considerably the possibilities of collecting enough cases for clinical and research studi...

Preparations from ivy leaves (Hederae helicis folium, Hedera helix) dry extracts are well established in the treatment of different respiratory diseases. Until today, the efficacy and safety of ivy leaf preparations has been demonstrated in a variety of controlled clinical studies and non-interventional studies. These results were nearly exclusively obtained using the commercial ivy leaves dry ...

Hyaluronan, a ubiquitous naturally occurring glycosaminoglycan, is a major component of the extracellular matrix, where it participates in biological processes that include water homeostasis, cell-matrix signaling, tissue healing, inflammation, angiogenesis, and cell proliferation and migration. There are emerging data that hyaluronan and its degradation products have an important role in the p...

Nonencapsulated, nontypeable Hemophilus influenzae (NTHi) remains an important cause of acute otitis and respiratory diseases in children and adults. NTHi bacteria are one of the major causes of respiratory tract infections, including acute otitis media, cystic fibrosis, and community-acquired pneumonia among children, especially in developing countries. The bacteria can also cause chronic dise...