Chronic cough is a difficult to treat symptom of many respiratory and some non-
respiratory diseases, indicating that varied pathologies can underpin the development of
chronic cough. However, clinically and experimentally it has been useful to collate these different
pathological processes into the single unifying concept of
cough hypersensitivity.
Cough hypersensitivity syndrome is reflected by troublesome
cough often precipitated by levels of stimuli that ordinarily don't cause
cough in healthy people, and this appears to be a hallmark feature in many patients with
chronic cough. Accordingly, a strong argument has emerged that changes in the excitability and/or normal regulation of the peripheral and central neural circuits responsible for
cough are instrumental in establishing
cough hypersensitivity and for causing excessive
cough in disease. In this review, we explore the current peripheral and central neural mechanisms that are believed to be involved in altered
cough sensitivity and present possible links to the mechanism of action of novel
therapies that are currently undergoing clinical trials for
chronic cough.