Infection Prevention Updates

Lung Disease News

Apr. 21, 2023 — Storing donor lungs for transplant at 10 degrees Celsius markedly increases the length of time the organ can live outside the body according to new ...

Mar. 28, 2023 — Researchers develop a 3D cell culture system to test how inhibiting fibroblast activities can help treat lung cancer. To simulate the tumor microenvironment and mimic real tissues, the team ...

Mar. 17, 2023 — A new study has revealed FDA-approved trametinib and entinostat (which is currently in clinical trials) can be given in tandem to produce fewer and smaller tumors in mice with LKB1-mutated non-small ...

Mar. 15, 2023 — A new study represents a first step towards generating highly detailed 3-dimensional maps of lung tumors using genetically engineered mouse ...

Mar. 13, 2023 — Scientists have discovered why breast cancer cells that have spread to the lungs may 'wake up' following years of sleep -- forming incurable secondary tumors. Their research reveals the ...

Mar. 10, 2023 — One in 10 adults suffer from the debilitating effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Research around a new breathing device developed by pulmonologists offers promise for improving ...

Mar. 9, 2023 — Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is one of the deadliest birth defects. To better understand and treat this condition in the future, researchers designed a new cell model in the laboratory and tested ...

Mar. 8, 2023 — Contracting a lower respiratory tract infection in early childhood is associated with a higher risk of dying from respiratory disease as an adult, according to new ...

Feb. 27, 2023 — New research reveals how the relationship between nerves and immune cells in the lungs can contribute to the development of allergic ...

Feb. 23, 2023 — As air pollution in Stockholm has decreased, so has the lung capacity of children and adolescents has improved, a new study reports. The researchers consider the results important, since the lung ...

Feb. 22, 2023 — A new study uncovers how a protein, APOBEC3B, could protects cells against many different types of RNA viruses like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), SARS-CoV2, influenza virus, poliovirus and ...

Feb. 8, 2023 — A new study reveals how resistance to bacteraemic pneumonia is provided by a unique subset of lung T regulatory ...

Feb. 1, 2023 — New data from a clinical trial shows improved rates of survival and reduced risk of recurrence in patients taking osimertinib, a targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer ...

Jan. 19, 2023 — Researchers demonstrate that a bacteria can be modified to act as 'living medicine' in the lung. The treatment significantly reduced acute lung infections in mice and doubled their survival ...

Jan. 12, 2023 — More than 2,500 genes exhibit significant sex differences in expression in mouse alveolar type II cells (AT2s), important for keeping the lungs functioning, potentially explaining sex biases in the ...

Jan. 9, 2023 — A new study found that deleting a gene called KMT2D caused normal (basal) lung cells grown in complex cultures called organoids to transform into lung squamous carcinoma (LUSC) ...

Jan. 5, 2023 — A new method of donor-lung distribution is projected to decrease the number of candidate deaths who are on the waitlist for lung transplant, according to a new ...

Jan. 4, 2023 — A research team has shown that Sarunashi juice and its constituting component isoquercetin help prevent and reduce lung cancer in laboratory ...

Dec. 28, 2022 — Researchers have found that antigen-specific killer T cells (CD8+ T cells) rapidly expand in the lungs when primed by antigen-presenting lung-resident alveolar macrophages (AMs). This interaction ...

Dec. 26, 2022 — Researchers report that they have developed a new experimental pipeline to combine bacterial therapy with current cancer drugs. Their study, which explores resistance to bacterial therapy at the ...

Friday, April 21, 2023

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Friday, March 17, 2023

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Monday, March 13, 2023

Friday, March 10, 2023

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Monday, February 27, 2023

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Monday, January 9, 2023

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Monday, December 26, 2022

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Monday, December 5, 2022

Friday, December 2, 2022

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Monday, November 21, 2022

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Monday, October 17, 2022

Monday, October 10, 2022

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Friday, September 23, 2022

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Monday, September 19, 2022

Friday, September 16, 2022

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Monday, September 5, 2022

Friday, September 2, 2022

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Monday, August 8, 2022

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Monday, August 1, 2022

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Monday, July 25, 2022

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Monday, July 18, 2022

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Friday, June 10, 2022

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Friday, June 3, 2022

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Monday, May 9, 2022

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Monday, April 25, 2022

New, Rapid Way To Diagnose Lung Infections

Kotagiri, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the UC James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, has been awarded a five-year $3 million, R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop and study the effectiveness of different kinds of injectable probes (metallic contrast agents) that would collect at the site of the infection and immediately light up under a nuclear imaging machine, known as a PET scan.

Currently, radiologists use chest X-rays to confirm the diagnosis of pneumonia and other infections in the lungs. An X-ray, however, cannot determine the specifics of the infection or whether the infection is bacterial, viral or fungal. A specific diagnosis can only be determined by a pathologist, after culturing a sample of lung tissue which is collected from an invasive procedure (called a bronchoscopy) and takes time, typically 2-3 days.

Critically ill patients, however, such as those with infectious pneumonia and underlying conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), might not have time to spare, says Kotagiri.

Advertisement

An added benefit, he says, is that the contrast agent development process "doesn't require elaborate processing or preparation time." This is critical as development of contrast agents can be time-consuming and complicated. A simple and fast process is expected to reduce preparation time in a clinical laboratory and potentially enable adoption of the technology in a clinical setting.

With this study, in animal models, Kotagiri and colleagues will only be looking at bacterial and viral pneumonias in conjunction with COPD, but the imaging approach has the potential to apply to other types of infections such as fungal infections or conditions such as cystic fibrosis.

Imaging the patient after treatment, Kotagiri says, could also identify whether the patient is responding to medications such as antibiotics.

Reference :

UC study focus: Faster, more accurate way to diagnose lung infections - (https://www.Uc.Edu/news/articles/2023/08/researcher-nalinikanth-kotagiri-leads-study-of-imaging-technology-to-diagnose-lung-infections.Html)

Source: Eurekalert

Lung Infection Improved By Vegetable Molecules

Francis Crick Institute researchers report they have uncovered that molecules in vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower may help to maintain a healthy barrier in the lung and ease infection. Their findings in mice demonstrate that the protein, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), which is found at barrier sites, is highly active in endothelial cells lining blood vessels in the lung.

Their study, "Endothelial AHR activity prevents lung barrier disruption in viral infection," is published in Nature and led by Andreas Wack, PhD, group leader of the Immunoregulation Lab at the Crick.

"Disruption of the lung endothelial–epithelial cell barrier following respiratory virus infection causes cell and fluid accumulation in the air spaces and compromises vital gas exchange function," wrote the researchers. "Endothelial dysfunction can exacerbate tissue damage, yet it is unclear whether the lung endothelium promotes host resistance against viral pathogens. Here we show that the environmental sensor aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is highly active in lung endothelial cells and protects against influenza-induced lung vascular leakage."

The researchers conducted a series of experiments in mice to show how AHR impacts lung barriers. When mice were infected with the flu virus, blood was found in the airspaces in the lungs, as it had leaked across the damaged barrier. The researchers then showed that AHR was able to prevent the barrier from becoming leaky: when AHR was overactivated they observed less blood in the lung spaces.

The researchers also observed mice with enhanced AHR activity didn't lose as much weight when infected with flu, and were able to better fight off a bacterial infection on top of the original virus.

When AHR was prevented from being expressed in the lung endothelial cells of infected mice, more blood and immune cells were seen in the air spaces, showing greater damage to the barrier.

The researchers also showed that flu infection causes a decrease in protective lung AHR activity, but only in mice fed AHR ligands in their diet before the illness. Infected mice didn't eat as much food when ill, so their intake of AHR ligands was reduced and the AHR system was less active, leading to more lung damage.

Despite the infection-driven reduction of AHR activity, it was beneficial for mice to be on an AHR ligand-rich diet: these mice had better barrier integrity and less lung damage during infection than mice on the control diet. These results indicate that AHR has a protective effect on the lung barrier which is impacted by infection, but can be improved by the right diet.

"Until recently, we've mainly looked at barrier protection through the lens of immune cells," added Wack. "Now we've shown that AHR is important for maintaining a strong barrier in the lungs through the endothelial cell layer, which is disrupted during infection."

Jack Major, a former PhD student in the Wack lab and now visiting scientist at the Crick and first author, said: "What we've identified is a gut-lung axis—linking diet to protection against lung infection via endothelial cells.

"We looked at flu in this research, but other research has shown that COVID-19 may also reduce AHR activity in the lung. It will be interesting to investigate the impact of other respiratory viruses on AHR, and also whether different molecules in our diet use other pathways than AHR to affect lung function via endothelial cells."

---