Grant: Project Grant

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a very common chronic lung condition that is a leading cause of death and hospitalization in Canada and around the world. Patients with COPD have persistent breathlessness and exercise intolerance that affects their ability to carry out routine tasks of daily living. The best way to address these important challenges, in addition to COPD 'controller' medicines, is Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) participation. Standard PR programs include a tailored multi-week exercise training program that allows patients with COPD to become less breathless, have a greater exercise tolerance to live a high-quality life, and to stay out of the hospital. However, even basic exercise training is often very challenging for patients with COPD, especially in those living with more severe forms of the disease, which means that these patients often do not attain the maximum possible benefits of this treatment. Moreover, patients with COPD are also well known to have muscle dysfunction. It is possible that a supplement called Urolithin A could maximize the benefits of exercise training by promoting the proper function of the body's muscles. Recently published studies have demonstrated the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of Urolithin A on exercise performance in other adult patient populations without COPD. It is possible that Urolithin A supplementation, in combination with participation in a standard PR program, could lead to greater benefits specifically in patients with COPD. Following very encouraging results from our pilot study, we will now conduct a large randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test whether Urolithin A supplementation does indeed lead to greater improvements following PR participation in patients with COPD by assessing the change in exercise endurance, a well-established measure of fitness and function, in addition to many other important outcomes including muscle strength, symptom burden, and quality of life.