The Lungs: Lung diseases and other non-cancer related treatments news and discussions

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The Lungs: Lung diseases and other non-cancer related treatments news and discussions

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A step closer to a treatment for fatal lung disease in babies

by University of Edinburgh
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... sease.html
The fight against a devastating lung condition in newborn babies could be helped by the discovery that it is caused by a deficiency in a particular protein.

Scientists have found that persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), which is characterized by high blood pressure in a baby's lungs, is triggered by the lack of an enzyme called AMPK.

Enzymes are proteins in the body that drive chemical reactions critical to normal cell function. The research team discovered the link between AMPK and PPHN in a study of mice.

Experts hope that by understanding more about how this enzyme works, new treatments can be developed to prevent premature deaths.

Lung development

PPHN occurs in around two in every 1,000 births. It usually occurs in babies born at term, but occurs in premature babies as well.

When a newborn's lungs fill with air, the blood vessels that take blood from the heart to the lungs open up allowing oxygen to flow from the lungs back to the heart. The oxygen is then pumped to the brain and the rest of the body once the umbilical cord is cut.

After birth, the blood vessels that feed the lungs and the airways that supply them with oxygen branch and multiply to provide babies with the ability to take in more oxygen as they grow.
Last edited by weatheriscool on Tue Apr 11, 2023 4:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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International study discovers bacteria previously thought harmless can worsen existing lung disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... mless.html
by Nanyang Technological University
A team of international scientists led by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has discovered that Neisseria—a genus of bacteria that lives in the human body—is not as harmless as previously thought, and can cause infections in patients with bronchiectasis, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In a study published today in Cell Host & Microbe, the team showed conclusive evidence that Neisseria species can cause disease in the lung and are linked to worsening bronchiectasis (a type of lung disease) in patients.

Bronchiectasis is a long-term condition where the airways of the lungs become abnormally enlarged for unknown reasons in up to 50% of Singaporean patients. The disease is up to four times more prevalent among Asians as compared to their Western counterparts and can also occur following recovery from tuberculosis. In Singapore, research at Tan Tock Seng Hospital described 420 incident-hospitalized bronchiectasis patients in 2017. The incidence rate is 10.6 per 100,000 and increases strongly with age.
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Air pollution from factories and vehicles linked to worse outcomes for patients with lung disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... inked.html
by University of Pittsburgh
People with a disease characterized by lung scarring that has no obvious cause are more likely to die if they live in areas with higher levels of air pollution composed of chemicals associated with industrial sources and vehicular traffic, according to new research led by University of Pittsburgh scientists.

The study, published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the first to link the chemical composition of fine particulate air pollution to worsened fibrotic interstitial lung disease (fILD) outcomes. It is also the largest study ever done to evaluate the impact of air pollution on these patients.

"Some people with these lung diseases have an expected lifespan from diagnosis to death of only a few years, and yet it's a mystery as to why they developed the disease, why their lungs become so scarred," said lead author Gillian Goobie, M.D., doctoral candidate in the Pitt School of Public Health's Department of Human Genetics. "Our study points to air pollution—specifically pollutants from factories and vehicles—as potentially driving faster disease progression and premature death in these patients."
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Proof-of-concept drone flight delivers transplant lung to patient in Toronto
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-pro ... -lung.html
by Bob Yirka , Tech Xplore
A team of researchers from Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Unither Bioelectronics Inc., and Techna, University Health Network, has demonstrated the feasibility of using drones to carry human organs for transplantation to nearby locales. In a Focus piece, published in the journal Science Robotics, the researchers outline the factors that went into the groundbreaking event, and what it could mean for future patients around the world.

As drone technology has become more reliable, engineers have begun to use them for more critical applications. In this instance, a drone carried a human lung donated by a deceased patient at one hospital in downtown Toronto, Canada, to another patient needing a new lung waiting in another hospital, also in downtown Toronto.

The feasibility study was not the first to use a drone to carry human organs or medical supplies, but it is perhaps the most stringent. The effort was meant to test the use of drones for carrying donated organs on a regular basis. To that end, they began by selecting a drone—the Chinese-made M600 Pro, which has proven to be a workhorse.
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Researchers discover exploiting microbiome bacteria in patients with lung infections improves low oxygen levels
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01- ... -lung.html
by Professor Dr. Claudio De Simone , Medical Xpress
Newspaper headlines from the U.S. to the U.K. and most places in between highlight the surge in sick patients suffering from respiratory viruses. The so-called "tripledemic" of lung infections including respiratory synclinal virus (RSV), influenza (flu) and COVID-19 (coronavirus) is likely to last throughout the winter season. This explosion of infections requires more treatment options to support overloaded hospitals and overworked medics as they restore people's health.

It has been known for a long time that intubation of an infant with any lung condition, or even an adult with severe COVID-19 using either ventilation or extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), comes with risks and side effects that could cause permanent damage not limited to the lungs. However, hypoxia, which means oxygen deficiency, is a medical emergency that is a common complication of severe lung infections. If not treated, it can lead to severe disability and even death.

Gut receives nearly one-third of the body's oxygen

Consider this fact: The human intestine receives almost one-third of the body's cardiac output. What if we could spare oxygen in the gut and redistribute oxygen to other body districts to avoid intubation of certain vulnerable patient groups?

I decided to explore this question before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. As a retired professor of gastroenterology and immunology, I spent most of my career focusing on the gut microbiome. When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, I immediately became involved in studies pivoting to coronavirus.

Much of what is known in general medicine today about the microbiome focuses on the large intestine. Indeed, earlier in my career I developed and patented the De Simone Formulation multi-strain probiotic mostly used in the dietary management of gastrointestinal disorders including IBS, ulcerative colitis, pouchitis and chronic liver diseases. Now, it was time to investigate uncharted territory and focus on the performance of the small intestine and its role in oxygenating the human body.

Everybody understands that our gastrointestinal tract processes nutrients to keep us all alive. Most often, patients think of nutrients as vitamins and minerals like vitamin C or iron. However, it is important to remember that while you can't exactly squeeze it into a thirst-quenching mineral drink or a delicious energy snack bar, oxygen is also, in fact, a nutrient that human bodies need to not only survive but thrive.
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Scientists develop test that can identify respiratory viruses within five minutes
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-scientist ... nutes.html
by University of Oxford
Scientists have developed a world-first diagnostic test, powered by artificial intelligence, that can identify known respiratory viruses within five minutes from just one nasal or throat swab. The new diagnostic test could replace current methods that are limited to testing for only one infection—such as a lateral flow test for COVID-19—or otherwise are either lab-based and time-consuming or fast and less accurate.

The new virus detection and identification methodology is described in a paper published in ACS Nano, authored by Department of Physics DPhil student Nicolas Shiaelis along with corresponding authors Professor Achillefs Kapanidis from the Department of Physics and Dr. Nicole Robb from the University of Warwick and Visiting Lecturer at Oxford's Department of Physics.

The paper demonstrates how machine learning can significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy and time taken to not only identify different types of viruses, but also differentiate between strains.
Ground-breaking testing technology

Nicolas Shiaelis and Dr. Robb collaborated with the John Radcliffe Hospital to validate the new method that uses AI software to identify viruses. The ground-breaking testing technology combines molecular labeling, computer vision and machine learning to create a universal diagnostic imaging platform that looks directly at a patient sample and can identify which pathogen is present in a matter of seconds—much like facial recognition software, but for germs.

Preliminary research demonstrated that this test could identify the COVID-19 virus in patient samples and further work determined that the test could be used to diagnose multiple respiratory infections.

In the study, the researchers began by labeling viruses with single-stranded DNA in over 200 clinical samples from John Radcliffe Hospital. Images of labeled samples were captured using a commercial fluorescence microscope and processed by custom machine-learning software that is trained to recognize specific viruses by analyzing their fluorescence labels, which show up differently for every virus because their surface size, shape and chemistry vary.
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Lung storage technique offers 'paradigm shift' for transplants
By Michael Franco
April 21, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/lung-transplant-storage/

The gold standard for storing lungs for transplant procedures has been to pack them in ice in coolers, which keeps them at roughly 4 °C (39 °F). But a look back at lung transplant research has revealed that there's an even better temperature at which to store donor lungs, which will dramatically improve the time during which they remain viable.

The first lung transplant was conducted in 1963. Since that time, when lungs are removed from patients, they are packed in a cooler with ice and rushed to the location of the recipient. Generally, this method can keep the lungs viable for roughly six to eight hours. Wondering if they could improve on this time, researchers led by a team of scientists from the University Health Network in Toronto looked back at experimental data from decades ago.

"Our approach to solving this problem was finding an optimal lung storage temperature (by) looking at data from experiments performed over 30 years ago, where lung transplant pioneers looked at very low temperatures, all the way to body temperature, to see what would be the ideal lung preservation temperature," said study first author Dr. Aadil Ali, Adjunct Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute.
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The FDA has approved the first-ever vaccine for RSV

The shot, for those 60 and over, can protect against severe respiratory illness
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fda ... accine-rsv

By Tina Hesman Saey

May 3, 2023 at 3:56 pm
Respiratory syncytial virus hospitalizes tens of thousands of people each year in the United States. Now there’s a powerful new tool against it: the first-ever RSV vaccine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced May 3 that it had granted approval for an RSV vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline to be used in people 60 and older.

RSV is a respiratory virus that causes cold-like symptoms for many people, but can cause serious illness, hospitalization and death for infants and older people. In the United States, an estimated 60,000 to 160,000 older adults are hospitalized each year with lung infections caused by RSV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 6,000 to 10,000 of them die from RSV infections each year. Older adults with chronic heart or lung disease, and those with weakened immune systems are especially vulnerable.
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Research links immune cell receptors to asthma, inflammatory lung disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... sthma.html
by Cleveland Clinic

Inhibiting a protein on the surface of immune cells could offer new strategies for treating severe asthma, Cleveland Clinic researchers found.

Researchers discovered a new way a protein called MCEMP1 contributes to severe inflammation in the airway and lungs. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, provides critical information for developing therapeutic interventions to treat long-term lung conditions, including asthma, on a biological level.

The study was conducted in a lab led by Jae Jung, Ph.D., chair of the Cancer Biology Department, director of the Infection Biology program, and director of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Global Center for Pathogen & Human Health Research.

Severe asthma is caused by airway inflammation in response to a trigger, like allergens or air pollution. The inflammation causes the airway to swell up and become narrower and stiffer, which makes breathing difficult. Asthma currently affects more than 25 million people in the U.S and 300 million people worldwide.
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Inhalation drug may prevent severe pneumonia
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... monia.html
by Technical University Munich
Overly active immune cells are often behind lung damage in diseases such as COVID-19. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an RNA agent for a lung spray that slows the activity of these cells, known as macrophages. A new, sugar-based transport mechanism is especially effective in bringing the therapeutic to its target.

The team led by Stefan Engelhardt, Professor of Pharmakology and Toxikology, has developed an RNA-based active ingredient called RCS-21 to prevent severe lung inflammation and fibrosis, i.e., scarring of the lung tissue, for example in SARS-CoV2 infections.

In the cell, RCS-21 stops the activity of the molecule microRNA 21. This nucleic acid, which Engelhardt and his team have been researching for a long time, is one of the triggers for the excessive activity of macrophages in severe lung infections.
Drug docks onto sugar receptors

Publishing in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the team describes how the active substance RCS-21 is delivered to its target particularly effectively via an inhaler. To do this, the researchers took advantage of a special feature of macrophages. These scavenger cells are also present in large numbers in the healthy lung. There, they perform the important task of destroying bacteria and fungal spores as quickly as possible.

The macrophages identify their targets among other things based on complex sugar molecules on the surface of the invaders. "We have determined in single cell analyses that the corresponding sugar receptors are, on the one hand, among the most common receptors on macrophages," says Stefan Engelhardt. "On the other hand, the receptors are, in a sense, a unique feature of macrophages—they hardly occur anywhere else."
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