Researchers at The College of Texas at El Paso are creating a brand new therapeutic method that makes use of nanoparticles for the remedy of pores and skin and lung fibrosis, circumstances that may end up in extreme harm to the physique’s tissues.
Md Nurunnabi, Ph.D., is an affiliate professor in UTEP’s Faculty of Pharmacy and the lead researcher on two research printed this June within the medical Journal of Managed Launch; one research focuses on pores and skin fibrosis and the opposite on lung fibrosis.
“We’re nearer than ever to creating a secure, efficient and dependable method to treating fibrosis,” Nurunnabi mentioned.
Fibrosis is a situation through which the tissues in an organ -; such because the pores and skin, lungs, liver or kidneys -; develop into thicker and stiffer, based on Nurunnabi. This may have a number of damaging results, such because the lungs not having the ability to maintain sufficient oxygen or blood vessels turning into narrower, resulting in hypertension.
“I studied fibrosis throughout my postdoctoral coaching however grew to become all for specializing in it in my lab throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” Nurunnabi mentioned. “I noticed that many individuals had been passing away not due to COVID itself, however due to the irritation and fibrosis attributable to the viral an infection within the lungs. Our lab focuses on creating nanotechnology that may goal particular cells.”
Fibrosis can happen as a aspect impact of chemotherapy or the results of a viral an infection or autoimmune illness, a situation through which the physique’s immune system assaults its personal cells. For instance, with an autoimmune situation, the physique kills cells known as fibroblasts that assist kind connective tissue. The physique then produces extra collagen than it wants, which results in fibrosis.
Nurunnabi’s staff targeted on designing a nanoparticle that would goal the cells which might be chargeable for fibrosis growth and development with out disturbing the “good” cells crucial for the physique’s wholesome functioning. Fairly than killing the “unhealthy” cells, the staff was profitable in modifying them in order that they now not produced extra collagen, in impact rehabilitating the cells. The research had been carried out within the take a look at tube and in mice.
“Dr. Nurunnabi’s analysis into pores and skin and lung fibrosis sheds mild on the devastating impression of those circumstances, whether or not acute or continual,” mentioned José Rivera, Pharm.D, founding dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy. “His findings supply hope for improved therapies that would considerably enhance life expectancy and improve the standard of life for affected people.”
Nurunnabi’s lab is funded via a collaborative program between UTEP, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and Baylor Faculty of Drugs, in addition to a pilot grant from the Nationwide Scleroderma Basis to conduct analysis associated to remedy of fibrosis.