Two repurposed drugs –iloprost and mioprostol– used to treat high blood pressure in lung arteries and stomach ulcers respectively, are found to be useful to effectively combat COPD. According to the latest research by Prof Reinoud Gosens and colleagues at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, these clinically available drugs have shown promise in restoring the regenerative capacity of mouse lung cells, suggesting they could be used to treat COPD. The researchers wrote that after assessing how many organoids formed in the absence or presence of the drugs, both drugs appeared to fully restore the regenerative capacity of the progenitor cells, which decreased after exposure to cigarette smoke. The team also observed that the effectiveness of the drugs might be through reinstating the circadian clocks in lung cells.