When I was growing up, I loved the show “MythBusters.” I tuned in regularly to watch Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman bust famous myths and answer burning questions like, “Will using a cellphone near a gas pump cause an explosion?” 2003 seemed like a simpler time, didn’t it?…
The days surrounding April 7 each year are emotional for me. On that day in 2016, I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) at the young age of 28. Like many others, I’d never heard of IPF and knew nothing about this life-threatening and debilitating lung disease. Moreover, as…
The European Commission is expected to propose a new governing framework for health data next month, called the European Health Data Space (EHDS), with the aim of connecting national health systems to facilitate secure and efficient transfer of data across systems in different European nations. The move is expected to…
The federal transportation mask mandate has been extended through May 3. The city of Philadelphia has reinstated mask requirements in public indoor settings. People in the U.K. are watching the spread of a new recombinant COVID-19 variant. The Chinese government has reportedly implemented either full or partial lockdowns in…
The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) has updated its State Report Card to make it more digitally friendly and added telehealth to its categories of rare disease policy issues in a nod to its increased use during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. NORD’s report card project began seven…
I spent a lot of time crying last week, but for a positive reason. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a cruel and life-threatening lung disease I was diagnosed with in 2016, has often been the reason for my tears. It is challenging to live with a condition that causes debilitating…
Oral therapies that kill aging cells were found to boost the levels of alpha-Klotho, a protective protein that declines with age and safeguards animals against age-related diseases — including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) — in a study involving older mice. So-called senolytic therapies are designed to kill aging senescent…
Every day in my post-transplant world begins with morning doses and ends with evening doses of medication. I also take doses in between, totaling 33–34 pills a day. Medication management is central in the life of a transplant recipient. I received a bilateral lung transplant on this past…
Using nanoparticles to deliver an anti-scarring RNA molecule to pro-scarring lung macrophages — a type of immune cell — prevented and reduced lung tissue fibrosis in a mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a study shows. To specifically target pro-fibrotic macrophages, researchers at University of Illinois College of Medicine (UICM)…
Abnormally high levels of the signaling molecule interleukin 19 (IL-19) were detected in lung tissues from both mice and humans with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in a recent study. These findings indicate that IL-19 promotes IPF progression by activating the transforming growth factor-beta pathway, a key mediator of tissue…
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