The team led by Professor Lu Wenju of the SKLRD has achieved a new progress in the research on the action and mechanism of STS in the treatment of AECOPD and published a paper on the journal International Immunopharmacology (IF: 3.361) with the title of “Sodium Tanshinone IIA sulfonate protects against acute exacerbation of cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in mice”. In recent years, the team has been devoted to related researches of the treatment of COPD with STS. And its published researches indicate that inhaling STS can inhibit the development of COPD by inhibiting the down-regulation of CFTR transduced by cystic fibrosis transmembrane (PMID: 29321495, IF：4.011), or inhibiting the activation of MAPK/HIF-1α signal channel (PMID: 29765317, IF: 3.845).

Through animal and cell experiments, the team has proven the protection effect of STS to AECOPD, which is specifically manifested in the fact that STS can obviously improve the pulmonary inflammation reaction, excessive secretion of airway mucus and the decline of pulmonary function in the acute exacerbation of COPD. STS can inhibit the inflammation reaction by inhibiting the activation of ERK1/2 and NF-κB, thus protecting AECOPD.