Washington: To suppress the impact of lung fibrosis, concerning COVID patients, scientists have been developing new treatment therapies, targeting the complications developed by the mutual relationship between the two.
Philip S. Low, the Purdue Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery, has led a team to develop two targeted therapies for people with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). The two different therapeutic approaches are published in Science Translational Medicine and EMBO Molecular Medicine.
According to the study, people with IPF have a life expectancy of fewer than five years. Fibrotic diseases cause organ failure that leads to about 45% of all deaths in the United States. Existing therapies do little to slow progression. The results of the research were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
“This is a horrible disease that claimed the lives of my next-door neighbour and a good friend’s wife,” Low said. “We developed two targeted therapies that allow us to use powerful drugs with high toxicities because we specifically deliver them to diseased cells without harming healthy ones,” he added.
The first of the Purdue team’s novel targeted molecules are designed to slow fibrosis and extend life. The second IPF therapy suppresses fibrosis-inducing cytokine production.
The two therapies will be moving into human clinical trials within the next several months. The developments come as a number of people with COVID-19 or who have recovered from COVID-19 experience, lung fibrosis, or other related conditions.