Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, fatal disease characterized by lung fibrosis and declining lung function. There are currently few effective treatments for IPF, and the median survival following diagnosis is between 2 and 5 years. In this issue of JCI Insight, Maureen Horton and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine report that intranasal administration of a vaccine for vaccinia, the virus that causes small pox, improved lung function in a mouse model of IPF. The vaccine induced a population of T cells, known as resident memory CD4+ T cells, within the lungs of treated mice, which was associated with fewer fibrosis-inducing cells within the lungs and a marked reduction in lung fibrosis. These findings indicate that therapies to induce such immune cell populations may be a promising approach for the treatment of IPF.
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TITLE:
Vaccinia vaccine-based immunotherapy arrests and reverses established pulmonary fibrosis AUTHOR CONTACT:
Maureen Horton
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
mhorton2@jhmi.edu
View this article at: http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/83116?key=95060fe0fa52b47db98a
JCI Insight is the newest publication from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a nonprofit honor organization of physician-scientists. JCI Insight is dedicated to publishing a range of translational biomedical research with an emphasis on rigorous experimental methods and data reporting. All articles published in JCI Insight are freely available at the time of publication. For more information about JCI Insight and all of the latest articles go to http://www.insight.jci.org.
Journal
JCI Insight