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| Picture of what scarring looks like in the lungs as carbon dioxide leaves and oxygen enters |
Difference between normal lungs and lungs with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
One of the most lethal lung diseases, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), has led to studies in Yale that have shown to identify this disease with specific gene expressions. These expressions help the outcome and will lead to better treatment for patients with this disease. The average age to see signs of IPF is in adult individuals of 50 and 70 years of age. Medical News Today has noted that the side effects from this disease are progressive scarring of the lungs, leading to cough, shortness of breath, and potentially death. This disease is classified as idiopathic because the cause cannot be identified and there is no other cure other than a lung transplant. The goal of this experiment was to analyze changes of genes in the blood using two cohorts of patients. It was identified that 52 genes correlated with this disease and four specific genes, CD28, ICOS, LCK, and ITK, have a predicted shorter survival time in patients with IPF.The research team has said that they believe discovery of these biomarkers will help physicians better predict disease presence, severity, and prognosis in IPF patients. Being that these genes are related to immune activation, major impacts would be on drug studies. At this moment there is six drugs that are being studied for IPF. First author Jose Herazo-Maya of Yale School of Medicine said, "current drug studies do not address the variability in outcomes of IPF patients, instead our findings may help investigators target patients who are more likely to progress and improve."
(Article)http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/266946.php
Lungs are important because they supply oxygen to body cells and release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Normally, humans breathe in and out about 500 ml of air, 15 times per minute. Since this is most lethal lung disease, I am happy to see they have found some new results that could help with this disease. When patients have better treatment for this disease, the outcome will be better. The side effects are very drastic, and since this disease has been classified as idiopathic, this could be the foundation for a new discovery for drug companies.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that they have found a way to show how deadly the PIF the patient has through 4 genes. In a way this is a good thing. Yet, i feel that they will focus less on these patients and try to help the ones that have more of a chance. If I had this deadly disease I would want to know how much time and how bad my case was. Yet, I would not want doctors to give up on me or push me off too the side because they know that I have a gene that predicts a shorter survival rate. Hopefully, they will continue to work towards a cure for everyone and not segregate the people with the less survival rate genes.
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