Hexosamine Biosynthetic Pathway in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

At a Glance

This research team will investigate a novel potential mechanism underlying interstitial lung disease (ILD), a collection of diseases that produce progressive scarring, or fibrosis, of the lung. ILD, which remains largely untreatable and poorly understood, impacts more than 250,000 patients in the United States and causes a staggering 40,000 deaths each year. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, incidence of ILD has risen sharply. Nearly all patients intubated for COVID-19 have evidence of ILD. This study focuses on understanding how epithelial injury remodels its extracellular matrix microenvironment through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway. The findings have the potential to advance the mechanistic understanding of how lung injury triggers scarring and identify therapeutic targets for stabilizing this progressive and intractable disease.