Abstract

While recent advances in medicine have brought greater symptomatic relief to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), early diagnosis and innovative treatments have remained elusive. This is due in part both to the complex, progressive nature of the disease, and the need for greater research to identify novel prophylactic and therapeutic targets. With an estimated number of patients affected worldwide being in excess of 400 million, the successful identification and targeting of novel treatment pathways has the potential to benefit not only individual patients, but also to relieve healthcare systems of substantial costs by reducing disease morbidity, halting and reversing disease progression, and improving screening for early diagnosis. In addition, with a higher percentage of cases being in men from low- and middle-income countries following occupational exposure to respiratory irritants, the success of new treatments for COPD could substantially improve the lives of dependent family members and communities. Whilst it is important that clinical research continues, the contribution of preclinical research to the advancement of pharmacotherapy for COPD should not be underestimated. In light of this, the use of preclinical imaging to evaluate drugs for the treatment of COPD presents the opportunity to enhance our understanding of COPD. This includes the use of established imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance and nuclear medicine techniques, as well as the further development of multimodal analysis to combine molecular and physiological targets for use in preclinical models of COPD.