Genetic predisposition to COPD

Abstract

hronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of global morbidity and mortality and categorized by irreversible airflow obstruction. COPD is presently the fourth leading cause of death and by 2030 COPD will be third leading cause of death according to the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. It was observe that minority of cigarette smokers have chance to develop COPD. But investigation suggests that subsequent to smoking other factors seems to be of play significant role for the development of the COPD. Epidemiological data demonstrated that genetics to be one of those factors, as COPD is known to aggregate in families and this provides evidence that genetic predisposition plays an important role in COPD. Related traits and genome wide association investigation of COPD have exposed multiple genetic loci association and risk of COPD. The heritability of COPD cannot be completely elucidated by identifying the genetic risk factors as achieving genome-wide significance. The mutual influence of genetic variation to COPD risk has not been completely understood.