Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Aug:59:85-94.
doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2021.05.002. Epub 2021 Jun 22.

Repairing damaged lungs using regenerative therapy

P Padmini P S J Khedoe  1 , Xinhui Wu  2 , Reinoud Gosens  2 , Pieter S Hiemstra  3
Affiliations
Review

Repairing damaged lungs using regenerative therapy

P Padmini P S J Khedoe et al. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

There is an urgent need for better treatment of lung diseases that are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. This urgency is illustrated by the current COVID-19 health crisis. Moderate-to-extensive lung injury characterizes several lung diseases, and not only therapies that reduce such lung injury are needed but also those that regenerate lung tissue and repair existing lung injury. At present, such therapies are not available, but as a result of a rapid increase in our understanding of lung development and repair, lung regenerative therapies are on the horizon. Here, we discuss existing targets for treatment, as well as novel strategies for development of pharmacological and cell therapy-based regenerative treatment for a variety of lung diseases and clinical studies. We discuss how both patient-relevant in vitro disease models using innovative culture techniques and other advanced new technologies aid in the development of pulmonary regenerative medicine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement R.G. received grants from Aquilo BV, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Sanofi-Genzyme outside the submitted work; P.S.H. received grants from Boehringer Ingelheim and Galapagos outside the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Approaches to drug discovery in pulmonary regenerative medicine. In vitro, in vivo, exvivo, and in silico modeling of respiratory lung diseases may be used for target identification as well as serve as the model to test drug efficacy. Thus, these complementary approaches contribute to development of new drug candidates, and these can be used in (semi) high-throughput screening approaches (depending on the technique). Such screening approaches are also particularly worthwhile for drug repurposing. Candidate drugs selected using such screens can be further analyzed and validated using the abovementioned in vivo, in vitro, and in silico approaches and lead to regenerative pulmonary medicine for a variety of lung diseases.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Regenerative approaches for lung diseases and the role of disease state. Lung diseases present with heterogenous characteristics, which emphasizes the need to consider different treatment approaches and combinations for pulmonary regenerative medicine. In addition, the choice for a therapy may be determined by the stage of the disease. ARDS, COPD, and fibrosis are presented as examples of diseases that may benefit from a regenerative therapy approach. See text for further details.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. George P.M., Wells A.U., Jenkins R.G. Pulmonary fibrosis and COVID-19: the potential role for antifibrotic therapy. Lancet Respir Med. 2020;8:807–815. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Butler J.P., Loring S.H., Patz S., Tsuda A., Yablonskiy D.A., Mentzer S.J. Evidence for adult lung growth in humans. N Engl J Med. 2012;367:244–247. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Melo-Narváez M.C., Stegmayr J., Wagner D.E., Lehmann M. Lung regeneration: implications of the diseased niche and ageing. Eur Respir Rev. 2020;29:200222. - PMC - PubMed
    1. De Santis M.M., Bölükbas D.A., Lindstedt S., Wagner Darcy E. How to build a lung: latest advances and emerging themes in lung bioengineering. Eur Respir J. 2018;52:1601355. - PubMed

    2. Comprehensive overview of different approaches to bioenigneering of lung tissue.

    1. Basil M.C., Katzen J., Engler A.E., Guo M., Herriges M.J., Kathiriya J.J., et al. The cellular and physiological basis for lung repair and regeneration: past, present, and future. Cell Stem Cell. 2020;26:482–502. - PMC - PubMed

    2. Comprehensive overview and introduction into the basis for lung regenerative medicine by key opinion leaders united in the NIH/NHLBI-supported progenitor cell translational consortium.

Publication types