Grant: Catalyst Grant: Sex as a Variable in Biomedical Research

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), formerly called emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthmatic bronchitis and smokers' lung, affects 1 in 10 Canadians over the age of 40. COPD is the number one reason why Canadians require hospitalization and re-hospitalizations. Inhalers to open up breathing tubes and reduce inflammation in the lungs are the most commonly prescribed medications for patients with COPD. However, all of these drugs were developed in clinical studies that recruited >70% men. Women have smaller lungs and may have more disease in the breathing tubes, so they are likely to have different responses to these inhalers. In this project, we will first determine whether women indeed have greater burden of COPD than men; then, we will determine whether inhaler therapy is more or less effective in women than in men and finally, because these drugs only work well in less than half of patients who take them, we will find out based on genetics which men and women will derive the most benefits (and least side effects) of these inhalers.