PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Pulmonary fibrosis has no cure. Could a cancer drug hold the answer?

2025-04-22
(Press-News.org) Researchers at Tulane University have identified a potential new way to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a deadly and currently incurable lung disease that affects more than 3 million people worldwide.

IPF is rapidly progressive and causes scarring in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Approximately 50% of patients die within three years of diagnosis, and current treatments can only slow the disease — not stop or reverse it. 

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Tulane scientists found that an FDA-approved cancer drug may help the immune system clear out the damaged cells that cause the lung scarring, potentially restoring lung function in patients with the disease.

In healthy lungs, specialized cells called fibroblasts help repair lung tissue. But in people with IPF, some fibroblasts and nearby epithelial cells stop functioning properly. These so-called “senescent” cells no longer divide or die as they should. Instead, they build up and contribute to stiff, scarred lungs.

Tulane researchers discovered that these senescent cells appear to accumulate when the immune system’s natural ability to remove them is blocked. The culprit: a protein called CTLA4, which acts as an emergency brake on immune system activity.

By using ipilimumab — an immunotherapy drug currently used to treat various cancers — the researchers were able to block CTLA4 in mice. This released the “brakes” on certain immune cells called T cells, reactivating their ability to clear out the senescent fibroblasts. As a result, the mice showed significantly improved lung tissue regeneration and reduced scarring.

“The CTLA4 protein normally functions to prevent excessive inflammation by blocking overactive T cells,” said senior author Dr. Victor Thannickal, professor and Harry B. Greenberg Chair of Medicine at Tulane University’s John W. Deming Department of Medicine. “Too much of this ‘blocker protein’ may result in losing the ‘good’ inflammation that is needed to remove senescent cells. What we’re doing is blocking the blocker.”

The researchers zeroed in on CTLA4 as a potential therapeutic target when they analyzed both human and mouse IPF lung tissue and found unusually high levels of CTLA4 on the T cells in the areas where scarring was most prevalent.

Mice that received ipilimumab showed significantly improved lung repair ability and recovered faster than mice that did not receive the drug. 

“This opens up an entirely new direction for potential treatment of IPF,” said lead author Santu Yadav, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “Instead of using drugs to kill senescent cells, we are re-activating our own immune system to clear them out.”

More research is needed to determine the efficacy of drugs that target CTLA4 or other so-called “checkpoint proteins” to rejuvenate the immune system. A primary concern is determining a safe dosing strategy that allows for the immune system to attack senescent cells without causing harmful levels of inflammation. 

IPF is a disease of aging and is rarely seen before age 50. These findings also offer hope that this approach could work for other similar aging related diseases. 

“If it works in IPF, this immune rejuvenating approach to treatment may be effective in other diseases such as Alzheimer’s or cardiovascular diseases in which senescent cells are known to accumulate,” Thannickal said. “Can the right drug activate T cells in a way that clears senescent cells without causing collateral damage? If so, we may be closer to combating many aging related diseases and perhaps even aging itself.” 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Trial explores drug-free approach to treat ADHD symptoms in children exposed to alcohol before birth

2025-04-22
Researchers at UCLA Health are launching the first clinical trial to test whether a wearable device that delivers gentle nerve stimulation during sleep could ease ADHD symptoms in children with prenatal alcohol exposure. Children exposed to alcohol in the womb have a heightened risk of developing ADHD-like symptoms including hyperactivity, impulsivity and executive function deficits such as difficulty paying attention, remembering, and organizing their behavior. Prenatal alcohol exposure affects about 5% of children in the U.S. with the majority developing these symptoms. ...

New research points out a promising strategy for treating metastatic medulloblastoma

2025-04-22
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and collaborating institutions reveal in Nature Cell Biology a strategy that helps medulloblastoma, the most prevalent malignant brain tumor in children, spread and grow on the leptomeninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. They discovered a novel line of communication between metastatic medulloblastoma and leptomeningeal fibroblasts that mediates recruitment and reprogramming of the latter to support tumor growth. The findings suggest that disrupting this communication offers a potential opportunity to treat this devastating ...

Light fields with extraordinary structure: plasmonic skyrmion bags

2025-04-22
“Our results add another chapter to the emerging field of skyrmion research,” proclaims Prof. Harald Giessen, head of the Fourth Physics Institute at the University of Stuttgart, whose group achieved this breakthrough. The team demonstrated the existence of “skyrmion bags” of light on the surface of a metal layer. A better understanding of physical phenomena Skyrmions are a mathematical description of vortex-like structures that help researchers better understand fundamental physical relationships. In recent years, this theoretical ...

DNA origami guides new possibilities in the fight against pancreatic cancer

2025-04-22
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — One of the challenges of fighting pancreatic cancer is finding ways to penetrate the organ’s dense tissue to define the margins between malignant and normal tissue. A new study uses DNA origami structures to selectively deliver fluorescent imaging agents to pancreatic cancer cells without affecting normal cells. The study, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign mechanical science and engineering professor Bumsoo Han and professor Jong Hyun Choi at Purdue University, found that specially engineered DNA origami structures carrying imaging dye packets can specifically target human KRAS mutant ...

PREPSOIL launches assessment tool for soil living lab and lighthouse initiatives

2025-04-22
This tool is specifically designed to assess how well your initiative aligns with the EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe (Mission Soil) criteria for Soil Living Labs and Lighthouses, as further defined by the PREPSOIL taxonomy.  Should your initiative meet the necessary criteria, you will be invited to participate in a more detailed assessment developed by the SOILL-Startup project. This next phase will provide an opportunity to join a network of 100 Soil Living Labs and ...

Lebanon crisis driving parents to seek unregulated “shadow” education, study shows

2025-04-22
Political and social crisis in Lebanon has forced parents to seek unregulated “shadow” education for their children, a new study shows. The government’s ongoing neglect of public education is intensifying social inequality, experts have warned. The current sectarian power-sharing arrangement has led to a diminished focus on schools, fostering privatization. The study shows how upheavals in Lebanon have exacerbated educational challenges for families across all socioeconomic groups, leading to an increasing reliance on the unregulated shadow education sector, particularly private ...

The AGA Research Foundation awards $2.4 million in digestive health research funding

2025-04-22
Bethesda, MD (April 22, 2025) — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) is proud to announce the selection of 74 recipients to receive $2.4 million in research funding through the annual AGA Research Foundation Awards Program. AGA also announces today the addition of 10 pilot grants, totaling $400,000 in funding, to the 2026 awards portfolio to ensure that scientific discovery continues despite federal funding cuts. “Since we established the AGA Research Foundation in 1984, AGA has been unwavering in the commitment to supporting ...

A repurposed anti-inflammatory drug may help treat alcohol use disorder and related pain

2025-04-22
LA JOLLA, CA—A preclinical study from scientists at Scripps Research finds that a drug already FDA-approved for treating inflammatory conditions may help reduce both alcohol intake and pain sensitivity—two issues that commonly co-occur with alcohol use disorder (AUD). The results, published in JCI Insight on April 22, 2025, suggest that the drug apremilast—a phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor, or a compound that blocks an enzyme involved in inflammation—could be repurposed as a dual-acting therapy for AUD, particularly in individuals who have pain during and after alcohol use. AUD ...

Obesity disrupts “reaction time” to starvation in mice

2025-04-22
Researchers led by Keigo Morita and Shinya Kuroda of the University of Tokyo have revealed a temporal disruption in the metabolism of obese mice when adapting to starvation despite no significant structural disruptions in the molecular network. This is a breakthrough discovery as research including the temporal dimension in biology has been notoriously laborious and extracting systematic insight from big data has been difficult. Thus, this study paves the way for further research into more general metabolic processes, such as food intake and disease progression. The findings were published in the journal Science Signaling. Living beings need to continuously extract energy from “food” ...

Listening to an avatar makes you more likely to gamble

2025-04-22
Expecting feedback from an avatar compared to a real human facilitates risk-taking behavior in a gambling task, and a brain region called the amygdala is central to this facilitation, according to a study published April 22nd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Toshiko Tanaka and Masahiko Haruno from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan. In virtual-reality environments, individuals can adopt various forms of avatars, projecting their behaviors into a virtual realm where their interaction partners also appear as avatars. With this shift in ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Study unexpectedly finds living in rural, rather than urban environments in first five years of life could be a risk factor for developing type 1 diabetes

Editorial urges deeper focus on heart-lung interactions in pulmonary vascular disease

Five University of Tennessee faculty receive Fulbright Awards

5 advances to protect water sources, availability

OU Scholar awarded Fulbright for Soviet cinema research

Brain might become target of new type 1 diabetes treatments

‘Shore Wars:’ New research aims to resolve coastal conflict between oysters and mangroves, aiding restoration efforts

Why do symptoms linger in some people after an infection? A conversation on post-acute infection syndromes

Study reveals hidden drivers of asthma flare-ups in children

Physicists decode mysterious membrane behavior

New insights about brain receptor may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs

Melanoma ‘sat-nav’ discovery could help curb metastasis

When immune commanders misfire: new insights into rheumatoid arthritis inflammation

SFU researchers develop a new tool that brings blender-like lighting control to any photograph

Pups in tow, Yellowstone-area wolves trek long distances to stay near prey

AI breakthrough unlocks 'new' materials to replace lithium-ion batteries

Making molecules make sense: A regional explanation method reveals structure–property relationships

Partisan hostility, not just policy, drives U.S. protests

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: August 1, 2025

Young human blood serum factors show potential to rejuvenate skin through bone marrow

Large language models reshape the future of task planning

Narrower coverage of MS drugs tied to higher relapse risk

Researchers harness AI-powered protein design to enhance T-cell based immunotherapies

Smartphone engagement during school hours among US youths

Online reviews of health care facilities

MS may begin far earlier than previously thought

New AI tool learns to read medical images with far less data

Announcing XPRIZE Healthspan as Tier 5 Sponsor of ARDD 2025

Announcing Immortal Dragons as Tier 4 Sponsor of ARDD 2025

Reporting guideline for chatbot health advice studies

[Press-News.org] Pulmonary fibrosis has no cure. Could a cancer drug hold the answer?