News | Coronavirus (COVID-19) | December 07, 2020

MBD2 serves as a viable target against pulmonary fibrosis by inhibiting macrophage M2 program

MBD2 serves as a viable target against pulmonary fibrosis by inhibiting macrophage M2 program #COVID19 #coronavirus

Getty Images


December 7, 2020 — An analysis of lung tissues from patients with different types of pulmonary fibrosis - including cases triggered by COVID-19 - has revealed a promising molecular target to ameliorate the chronic and irreversible disease. Experiments in mouse models of lung fibrosis showed that administering blockers of an epigenetic regulator called MBD2 via intratracheal inhalation protected the mice against fibrotic lung injury, highlighting a potential viable therapy. A poor understanding of what causes pulmonary fibrosis has greatly hindered the development of treatments, and to this day, no effective therapy is available other than lung transplantation. To tackle this limitation, Yi Wang and colleagues studied lung samples from patients with pulmonary fibrosis triggered by one of three causes: SARS-CoV-2 infection, systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease, or an unknown factor. The researchers also studied mouse models of pulmonary fibrosis, which they induced in the animals by administering the compound bleomycin. All cases of pulmonary fibrosis, they found, were characterized by overexpression of MBD2. This activity localized in areas occupied by macrophages - known contributors to the development of pulmonary fibrosis. To investigate this further, the scientists depleted the Mbd2 gene in macrophages of mice, which protected the animals against pulmonary fibrosis, characterized by markedly reduced macrophage accumulation in the lung following administration of bleomycin. As well, direct administration of liposomes - established carriers of inhaled drugs - loaded with Mbd2 silencer RNA into the trachea of mice protected them from lung injuries and fibrosis. Since MBD2 itself does not affect the essential epigenetic process of DNA methylation, inhibiting the molecule could prove to be a safe way to treat pulmonary fibrosis. However, future studies will first need to assess the impact of altered MBD2 expression in other types of cells relevant to pulmonary fibrosis, the authors say.

For more information: www.aaas.org


Related Content

News | Digital Radiography (DR)

March 20, 2023 — A study by Emory Healthcare reports that Konica Minolta Healthcare’s Dynamic Digital Radiography (DDR) ...

Time March 20, 2023
arrow
News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers

March 20, 2023 — RayzeBio, Inc., a targeted radiopharmaceutical company developing an innovative pipeline against ...

Time March 20, 2023
arrow
News | X-Ray

March 20, 2023 — Researchers from UNSW Sydney have developed an algorithm which produces high-resolution modeled images ...

Time March 20, 2023
arrow
News | Radiopharmaceuticals and Tracers

March 16, 2023 — A supply problem with Pluvicto [177Lu-vipivotide tetraxetan; Novartis], the radiopharmaceutical used to ...

Time March 16, 2023
arrow
Feature | Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) | By Brad Sutton

March 16, 2023, marks 50 years since Paul Lauterbur published his seminal Nature paper establishing zeugmatography — now ...

Time March 16, 2023
arrow
News | Coronavirus (COVID-19)

March 13, 2023 — The American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) ...

Time March 13, 2023
arrow
Videos | Enterprise Imaging

Philips Radiology Operations Command Center (ROCC) is a vendor-neutral, multi-modality, multi-site telepresence tool ...

Time March 13, 2023
arrow
News | Digital Radiography (DR)

March 9, 2023 — Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc., congratulates the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) ...

Time March 09, 2023
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

March 8, 2023 — An artificial intelligence (AI) tool can accurately identify normal and abnormal chest X-rays in a ...

Time March 08, 2023
arrow
Feature | Ultrasound Imaging | By Robert Bard, MD, DABR, FAIUM, FASLMS

Electromagnetic therapies currently used in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space centers ...

Time March 08, 2023
arrow
Subscribe Now