Agent Used To Treat Brain Infarction Might Be Useful For Lung Injury

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Also Included In: Cystic Fibrosis
Article Date: 30 Oct 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The average mortality rate of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is estimated to be 50.8 per 1,000,000 people per year. The mortality rate is now higher than recent mortality rates for a number of malignancies.

Although IPF should no longer be considered a rare disease, there is no established treatment that definitely improves its outcome. Furthermore, about 10% of IPF causes a very rapid progression called "acute exacerbation". The mortality rate of acute exacerbation of IPF is approximately 80%. Thus new therapies are awaited based on new understanding of the pathogenesis of IPF.

Other authors have shown that acetylcysteine, a precursor of the major antioxidant glutathione, preserves lung function in patients with IPF better than traditional therapy. These findings suggest that an oxidant - antioxidant imbalance may contribute to the disease process in IPF.

Shunji Tajima (Niigata University, Japan) and colleagues used a bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis model in mice, which is a common animal lung fibrosis model. The authors examined a unique potent free- radical scavenger, named edaravone, being clinically used to treat acute brain infarction in Japan, in order to investigate its ability to inhibit lung injury and/or fibrosis. Edaravone is already widely used in Japan with few side-effects.

This study shows that one administration of 300 mg/kg of edaravone significantly improved the survival rate, reduced lung inflammation, and attenuated reactive oxygen species and lung fibrosis. The results suggest that edaravone might not show a therapeutic effect on chronic fibrotic lung diseases such as IPF, but that it may have a preventive effect in the very accelerated phases of interstitial lung diseases, such as acute exacerbation of IPF.

In summary, edaravone could be a promising drug for fatal interstitial lung diseases, such as acute exacerbation of IPF, acute interstitial pneumonia associated with collagen vascular diseases, or chemotherapy-related toxicity. The safest dose, the most effective administration route and the optimum time for edaravone therapy should also be determined.

TITLE OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Effects of edaravone, a free radical scavenger, on bleomycin-induced lung injury in mice.

The European Respiratory Journal

The European Respiratory Journal is the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the European Respiratory Society (more than 8,000 specialists in lung diseases and respiratory medicine in Europe, the United States and Australia).

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