Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis: old drugs and hormones provide hope

Lung fibrosis has no effective therapy ... yet. PREMIUM CONTENT

Long covid sufferers, claim lungs have been scarred, evidence of fibrotic lesions. Perhaps we should be looking at Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis cases for prognosis and perhaps, solutions. Similar to the post covid patients, some inflammatory intitiating event activates a cascade that leads to fibrotic tissue being laid down instead of regenerating alveolar epithelia.

Fig. 1 Schematic view of IPF pathogenesis. Repeated injuries over time lead to maladaptive repair process, characterized by AEC2s apoptosis, proliferation and epithelium-mesenchymal cross-talk (a) and following fibroblasts, myofibroblasts proliferation and accumulation of extracellular matrix (b).CCL2: chemokine C-C motif ligand 2; CXCL12: C-X-C motif chemokine 12; FGF: fibroblast growth factor; PAI-1: plasminogen activator inhibitor 1; PAI-2: plasminogen activator inhibitor 2; PDGF: platelet-derived growth factor; TGF-β1: Transforming Growth Factor-Beta 1; TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-alpha; VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor