Drug-induced inflammatory responses to the lung

A number of drugs can induce lung toxicity. The lung manifestations can range from more acute responses such as an acute ARDS-like reaction, seen occasionally at overdosing of drugs to more insidious reactions, which can occur during conventional drug treatment. In many of these cases inflammation is an important component in the pathophysiology of drug induced lung toxicity. Very little is known about the mechanisms and initial events of drug-induced injury. In this review a couple of mechanistic aspects, related to drug induced lung injury, will be discussed such as reactive oxygen species (ROS)-generation, mediator release and disturbances in lung phospholipid turnover.