Margarida Maia, PhD, science writer —

Imaging with a tracer that homes in on scar-forming fibroblasts may help predict the progression of pulmonary fibrosis in people with interstitial lung disease (ILD), offering doctors a way to gauge who should be monitored more closely or begin preventive treatment. That tracer, a radiolabeled form of the fibroblast…

Low doses of controlled-release morphine, a natural opioid derived from the opium poppy, may reduce the frequency of daytime cough in people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), according to data from a Phase 2 clinical trial. In the trial, called PACIFY COUGH (NCT04429516), patients who were experiencing persistent…

Certain immune cells called natural killer (NK) T-cells are present at higher numbers in the lungs of people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) than in the lungs of healthy people, according to data announced by GRI Bio. Also, the more NK T-cells, the greater the number of macrophages,…

The first patient has been enrolled in a Phase 3 clinical trial of nebulized Tyvaso (treprostinil) inhalation solution for treating progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF), according to United Therapeutics, the therapy’s developer. Called TETON PPF (NCT05943535), the study will evaluate how safe Tyvaso is versus a placebo…

Many people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in the U.S. are not diagnosed early enough or given treatments helping to low its progression in a timely fashion, a large data study found. Although more is known about risk factors for IPF, delays are evident in diagnosis and the…

Treatment with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) bound to tiny vesicles loaded with Ofev’s active ingredient reduced lung inflammation and scarring while  promoting lung tissue repair in a mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a study has shown. This combination strategy worked better than Ofev alone in both young…

Long-term exposure to even low levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2), an air pollutant with a strong odor, may place people at a higher risk of developing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a study in over 400,000 U.K. residents found. The association’s strength grew as genetic susceptibility to the disease and…

Ofev (nintedanib) more than halved the rate of lung function decline in patients who developed interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an inflammatory disease. That’s according to data from INBUILD (NCT02999178), a Phase 3 trial of more than 650 adults with progressive fibrosing ILDs in…

A Phase 3 trial of pamrevlumab, an experimental therapy from FibroGen to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), failed to meet its primary goal of slowing lung function decline. General safety and tolerability were seen in treated patients in ZEPHYRUS-1 (NCT03955146), which tested 48 weeks of pamrevlumab’s use…

Insilico Medicine made its entry into Phase 2 clinical testing with INS018_055, a small molecule it discovered and designed using artificial intelligence (AI), as a potential treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Patients have now received the first dose of oral INS018_055 in a randomized placebo-controlled Phase 2…