A new alternative treatment in COPD: phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease which is characterized with progressive airflow obstruction and abnormal inflammatory response caused by noxious gases and particles. Recently oral phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE-4) inhibitors which block activation of inflammatory cells, are experimented as a new approach. Last studies showed that these drugs improve symptoms, pulmonary functions and quality of life, reduce the numbers of acute attacks, suppress bronchial inflammation in COPD. However these drugs lead to adverse reactions such as vomiting, diarrhea and headache. In this review we discussed roflumilast (Daxas) which was accepted by Food and Drug Administration (FDA), included in treatment of sever COPD in "The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD)" guideline.