
A research team from University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa is on track to uncover new treatment possibilities for patients with pulmonary fibrosis. The group, led by Jose Herazo-Maya, MD, published results of its study, “Convergent and Divergent Immune Aberrations in COVID-19, post-COVID-19-Interstitial Lung Disease and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis,” in the American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology.
Dr. Herazo-Maya, who is director of the Ubben Center for Pulmonary Fibrosis Research and an associate professor at the USF Morsani College of Medicine, knew that pulmonary fibrosis was essentially irreversible. However, people who had lung damage from COVID-19 were improving over time.
“The importance of this finding is that pulmonary fibrosis after COVID-19 tends to resolve, while in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) it always progresses,” said senior author Dr. Herazo-Maya in a university news release. “We need to learn about the factors associated with pulmonary fibrosis resolution and apply it to nonresolving forms of pulmonary fibrosis.”
Dr. Herazo-Maya and his team used single-cell RNA sequencing to examine similarities and differences between COVID-19 and IPF. The comprehensive analysis identified that specific genes in immune cells (monocytes) control the suppression or resurgence of T cells, including 7-Gene-M-MDSC (monocytic myeloid derived suppressive cell).
“Both diseases are caused by injury to alveolar epithelial cells in the lungs. In the case of COVID-19, the injury is viral and acute, and in the case of IPF, the injury is unknown and chronic — so that may explain the different patterns of pulmonary fibrosis progression,” he said. “What we found in this study were the key immune elements (cells and genes) that may explain resolution versus progression of pulmonary fibrosis.”
This knowledge, Dr. Herazo-Maya said, could be applied to future trials that test blocking monocytic gene expression and/or promoting gene expression in T cells to treat irreversible lung damage. He hopes to see this through to the development of new therapeutic approaches that can improve quality of life and survival rates for people with acute COVID-19, post-COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis and IPF.