A study conducted by a team led by scientists at Rutgers, in New Jersey, found a protein called ABCC1 as a potential target in treating asthma and COPD as it contributes to the airway constriction that makes it harder for patients to breathe.

Reynold Panettieri, vice chancellor of translational medicine at Rutgers University and a co-author of the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, said that ABCC1 protein had been identified by previous studies as important but not as a contributing factor of COPD.  

Panettieri also added that relaxing airway muscles by blocking ABCC1 could help to ease breathing and make bronchodilators more effective and that these findings will help clinicians better identify and determine the severity of chronic lung diseases such as COPD. 

A previous study with the same focus had suggested that  the inhibition of ABCC1 activity or expression decreases basal tone and increases β-agonist-induced HASM cellular relaxation. These findings identify a previously unrecognized role for ABCC1 in the homeostatic regulation of [cAMP]i in HASM that may be conserved traits of the Gs-coupled family of GPCRs. Hence, the general features of this activation mechanism may uncover new disease-modifying targets in the treatment of airflow obstruction in asthma, the research observed.