by Andrew Saintsing, PhD – Drug Discovery News –
When the world ground to a halt in 2020, news outlets regularly featured stories about how COVID-19 wreaked havoc on patients’ lungs. In millions of cases, an initial cough developed into full-blown pneumonia, which could scar lungs so badly that patients began to suffocate. But for many people who suffer from a buildup of scar tissue in their lungs, or pulmonary fibrosis, the root cause is unknown.
In cases of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), doctors like Peter Chen, a pulmonologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, can prescribe antifibrotic drugs like nintedanib or pirfenidone to try slowing the development of scar tissue. “But their lungs continue to progress to fibrosis,” said Chen. “Those that qualify will oftentimes need a lung transplantation.”
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