Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis News and Research

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Pulmonary fibrosi is a condition in which tissue deep in your lungs becomes thick and stiff, or scarred, over time. The development of the scarred tissue is called fibrosis. As the lung tissue becomes thicker, your lungs lose their ability to move oxygen into your bloodstream. As a result, your brain and other organs don't get the oxygen they need.

In some cases, doctors can find out what's causing the fibrosis. But in most cases, they can't find a cause. They call these cases idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF is a serious condition. About 200,000 Americans have it. About 50,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. IPF mostly affects people who are 50 to 75 years of age. IPF varies from person to person. In some people, the lung tissue quickly becomes thick and stiff. In others, the process is much slower. In some people, the condition stays the same for years. IPF has no cure yet. Many people live only about 3 to 5 years after diagnosis. The most common cause of death related to IPF is respiratory failure.

Scientists elucidate novel disease processes involved in pulmonary fibrosis development

Working alongside research groups from Heidelberg, researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have elucidated the novel disease processes involved in the development of pulmonary fibrosis.

27 Apr 2020

Study: Bacterial protein fragment instigates lung tissue death in pulmonary fibrosis

A bacterial protein fragment instigates lung tissue death in pulmonary fibrosis, a mysterious disease affecting millions of people worldwide, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Mie University in Japan.

24 Mar 2020

Scientists discover three genes linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Researchers at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham have discovered parts of the DNA that put some people at higher risk of an incurable lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

28 Feb 2020

Researchers use new technique to improve the ability to model lung diseases

Using a combination of pluripotent stem cells (cells that can potentially produce any cell or tissue type) and machine learning (artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn automatically), researchers have improved how they generate lung cells.

30 Jan 2020

Lung microbes could help predict outcomes in the seriously ill

A new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine shows that recording the way the organisms living within the lungs change in type and numbers could reflect the response of the critically ill patient to medical care. Though changes in the lung microbiome have been known to exist even before this study, this research shows the clinical importance of this test.

23 Jan 2020

Lung microbiome of critically ill patients is predictive of clinical outcomes

Changes in the lung microbiome may help predict how well critically ill patients will respond to care, according to new research published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

21 Jan 2020

Researchers develop 'scar in a dish' model to closely mimic progressive organ scarring

Every organ in the body is capable, to some extent, of repairing itself after an injury. As part of this process, scar tissue forms and then recedes to make room for normal tissue when healing is complete.

11 Dec 2019

Yale-led study provides roadmap to discover new treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

A Yale-led collaborative study boosts scientific understanding of how the lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) progresses, providing a roadmap for researchers to discover new treatment targets for the disease.

15 Nov 2019

UAB study suggests potential treatment target for IPF

Long-held dogma says lung fibrosis in diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, results from recurrent injury to alveolar epithelium that is followed by dysregulated repair.

12 Nov 2019

The air ambulance billed more than his surgeon did for a lung transplant

Before his double lung transplant, Tom Saputo thought he had anticipated every possible outcome.

6 Nov 2019

Researchers identify genetic mutation that causes idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Researchers in Japan have identified a genetic mutation that causes a severe lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by killing the cells lining the lung's airways.

10 Oct 2019

UD engineering professor receives NIH grant to accelerate study of lung fibrosis

University of Delaware Professor April Kloxin has been awarded a National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund's High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, which supports highly innovative research proposals.

9 Oct 2019

Nintedanib drug can benefit patients with broad range of scarring lung diseases

Nintedanib, a medication approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, slows the decline in lung function among patients with a broad range of scarring lung diseases.

30 Sep 2019

Gene coding error likely responsible for rare form of inherited 'short telomere' disease

By combing through the entire genetic sequences of a person with a lung scarring disease and 13 of the person’s relatives, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have found a coding error in a single gene that is likely responsible for a rare form of the disease and the abnormally short protective DNA caps on chromosomes long associated with it.

From Johns Hopkins Medicine 11 Sep 2019

FDA approves first drug to treat patients with rare lung condition

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Ofev (nintedanib) capsules to slow the rate of decline in pulmonary function in adults with interstitial lung disease associated with systemic sclerosis or scleroderma, called SSc-ILD. It is the first FDA-approved treatment for this rare lung condition.

7 Sep 2019

Rare inherited enzyme disorder offers new clues about fibrotic conditions

What can a family of rare inherited disorders teach scientists about more common health problems like fibrosis? Plenty, based on research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists that appears today in the journal Science Advances.

17 Jul 2019

New target identified for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

An article published in Experimental Biology and Medicine (Volume 244, Issue 9, June 2019) (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1535370219843827) identifies a new target for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

29 Jun 2019

New statement highlights occupational burden of non-cancerous lung diseases

More than 1 in 10 people with a range of non-cancerous lung diseases may be sick as a result of inhaling vapors, gas, dust or fumes at work, according to a joint American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society statement published in the ATS’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

3 Jun 2019

New chip-sized microscope focuses on super-resolution viewing

An EU-funded project is developing a super-resolution microscope small enough to fit on to a computer chip that can be used to see changes in living cells in real time.

28 May 2019