The Cystic Fibrosis (CF)

70,000 people with CF worldwide, a lifespan depending of the resources (in USA the lifespan it’s about 40 years old, while in Chile the average lifespan it’s about 18 years old)

It’s a disease caused by the expression of a deficient transmembrane protein called CFTR. This affects different kind of cells, mainly the epithelial cells from the airway and pancreas, causing the production of a defective mucus.

In the lungs, this defective mucus leads that several opportunistic pathogens enter to the lower airway and initiate an infection, with a consecutively progressive lung dysfunction.

Epithelium

One of the main pathogens found in an infection of the lungs are the Pseudomonas aeruginosa. When it colonize the airway, initiates the production of biofilm, a barrier that protect it of a lot of antimicrobial substances and gave best environment for it develop.

The actual treatments for controlling the symptoms consist in maintain controlled the pathogens, clear the airway of the sticky mucus, administrate complementary enzymes and regulate the function of the CFTR channel.

•http://redsalud.uc.cl/ucchristus/vidasaludable/glosario/F/fibrosis_quistica.act

•http://www.fibrosisquisticadelpancreas.cl/noticias/10-generales/16-ministro-de-salud- inauguro-congreso-de-actualizacion-en-fibrosis-quistica-.html

•http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0370-41062014000300003 http://www.cff.org/