In the international research project BREATH-EC, scientists led by Hannover Medical School (MHH) are developing a novel cell therapy approach designed to halt the progression of pulmonary fibrosis and potentially even reverse existing tissue damage. The European Union is funding the four-year collaborative project with approximately \u20ac10 million. Several researchers from the BREATH site of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) are playing a key role in the project.<\/p>\n
Pulmonary fibrosis is characterized by progressive remodeling of lung tissue, with excessive production and accumulation of connective tissue and a gradual loss of lung function. Despite considerable progress in the development of antifibrotic therapies, treatment options remain limited. Available medications can slow disease progression, but regeneration of lung tissue that has already undergone fibrotic changes is generally not yet possible.<\/p>\n
This is where the new EU-funded collaborative project BREATH-EC comes in. Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Nico Lachmann from the Department of Pediatric Pneumology, Allergology and Neonatology at MHH, the international research consortium is pursuing an innovative approach to immune cell therapy. The aim is to equip genetically modified macrophages with the ability to detect fibrotic changes in lung tissue at an early stage and specifically target them therapeutically.<\/p>\n
Macrophages play a central role in regulating inflammatory processes, maintaining tissue homeostasis and repairing damaged tissue. Alveolar macrophages, in particular, are essential for regulating local immune responses in the lungs. The research team aims to harness these properties to develop a novel cell therapy.<\/p>\n
To this end, macrophages are either generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or obtained from donor blood and subsequently genetically modified. The engineered immune cells are designed to recognize early signs of fibrotic changes, specifically intercept profibrotic signaling molecules and produce locally active antifibrotic antibodies. This approach aims to interrupt pathological signaling pathways and therapeutically modulate dysregulated processes in lung tissue.<\/p>\n
In the long term, the consortium aims to administer the modified macrophages via bronchoscopy. This would allow the therapeutic cells to be delivered directly into the lungs to counteract further fibrosis, particularly in the early stages of the disease, and potentially support regenerative processes.<\/p>\n
The project brings together scientific expertise in immunology, stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and pulmonology. The strong involvement of the DZL's BREATH site is particularly noteworthy: six DZL Principal Investigators (PIs) are contributing significantly to the project: Prof. Dr. Gesine Hansen, Prof. Dr. Nico Lachmann, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Martin, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Maus, PD Dr. Ruth Olmer and Prof. Dr. Jonas Schupp.<\/p>\n
In addition to MHH, the consortium includes other university hospitals, research institutions and companies from Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Belgium. The German partners include the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM), which, like MHH, is part of the DZL's BREATH site; the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI); and University Hospital Freiburg. Both HZI and University Hospital Freiburg are also close collaborators of the DZL.<\/p>\n
The EU is funding the four-year collaborative project with approximately \u20ac10 million, of which \u20ac2.73 million will go to MHH. We wish the entire team every success with this project and look forward to seeing the first results.<\/p>\n
Source: <\/strong>BREATH<\/a>, MHH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The EU-funded research project BREATH-EC is developing an innovative cell therapy approach designed to halt the progression of pulmonary fibrosis and potentially regenerate damaged lung tissue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":59448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-59449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-diffuse-parenchymal-lung-disease-dpld"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59453,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59449\/revisions\/59453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}