With age, senescent cells become detrimental to tissues. Mayo Clinic scientists have observed this phenomenon in the lung alveoli, where senescent macrophages accumulated in aging tissue and in early stages of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) driven by the Kras oncogene. “We found that the macrophages were present in the earliest stages of the disease. Strategies targeting these cells for elimination or preventing their accumulation would be worthwhile to test in other conditions (assuming we find they occur),” Darren Baker, a Mayo Clinic senescent cell biologist and senior author of the study, told BioWorld.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare, progressive and chronic lung disease that causes scarring of the lung tissue and leads to an irreversible decline in lung function. Several studies have linked the p53 tumor suppressor gene to pulmonary fibrosis.

A Hansoh Bio LLC, Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Hansoh Biomedical Co. Ltd. patent details piperidinyl indole derivatives acting as complement factor B (CFB) inhibitors.

Research at Sensorium Therapeutics Inc. has led to the identification of deuterated alkaloids acting as serotonin transporter (SERT) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, stress and anxiety disorders.

Researchers at Academia Sinica, CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas) and Universidad de Sevilla have divulged 5-aminohexahydro-6,7,8-trihydroxy-3h-oxazolo[3,4-a]pyridin-3-one derivatives acting as Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4; CD284) antagonists or TLR4 agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of autoimmune disease, metabolic syndrome, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, allergic rhinitis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, atherosclerosis and infections, among others, and also as vaccine adjuvants.

Researchers have compared the cellular responses driving allergic asthma to those in individuals with allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis but no allergic response in the lungs. Asthma is “an umbrella term,” Josalyn Cho told BioWorld. But under that umbrella, the largest group of people are those whose asthma begins in childhood. And “those folks almost exclusively develop their asthma after they develop allergies.”

Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA has synthesized pyrrolidine derivatives acting as discoidin domain-containing receptor DDR1 and DDR2 inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).