Gene therapy strategies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: recent advances, current challenges, and future directions.

ABSTRACT: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic disease in which the lungs become irreversibly scarred, leading to declining lung function. As currently available drugs do not cure IPF, there remains a great medical need for more effective treatments. Perhaps this need could be addressed by gene therapies, which offer powerful and versatile ways to attenuate a wide range of processes involved in fibrosis. Despite the potential benefits of gene therapy, no one has reviewed the current state of knowledge regarding its application for treating IPF. We therefore analyzed publications that reported the use of gene therapies to treat pulmonary fibrosis in animals, as clinical studies have not been published yet. In this review, we first provide an introduction on the pathophysiology of IPF and

SUBMITTER: Ruigrok MJR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7868939 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature