Using funding provided by an HSC R&D Fellowship Award, Dr Marianne Fitzgerald from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is working with a team from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) to develop a potential new drug treatment for Acute Lung Injury (ALI).
ALI is a devastating condition that is common in Intensive Care patients. There is no cure for ALI, and up to 50% patients die. In ALI fluid leaks into the lung because the lung lining becomes damaged.
It is possible that a protein called Oncostatin M, which causes damage to the joint lining in arthritis, may contribute to tissue damage in ALI.
The team in QUB have developed a lung perfusion system using human lung cells and whole human lungs (that have been donated for medical research by patients who have died). This system allows Marianne to test whether blocking this protein, Oncostatin M, reduces lung injury and promotes repair of the lining of the lung without causing susceptibility to infection.
If this works it could help provide a safe new treatment for ALI.
The images below show “wound pictures”: Lung cells can be 'wounded' and then tested to see what influences the wound repair.
