According to a new study, a novel treatment for an ischemia-reperfusion injury, an injury generally occurs in the patients suffering from lung transplantation, has been discovered by the researchers at the University of Virginia. The clinical trial for this research, funded by NIH, was performed at TCV lab under the supervision of Dr. Irving Kron, who has devoted three decades studying the efficiency of A2AR agonists for lung transplantation in model organisms such as rodents and large animals.
Throughout the clinical trials, the researchers observed that Regadenoson, an adenosine 2AR agonist, is potentially safe for lung transplant patients. Currently, there is not a single effective treatment in existence for this complicated problem.
LexiscanTM, a drug used in non-randomized clinical trials, is approved as a pill for myocardial imaging. However, no firm safety profile of this drug has been established yet against patients at high risk for a lung transplant. The clinical trial was conducted to review the safety of adenosine 2AR agonists in human lung transplant recipients.
After safety recognition, the researchers are planning to test the efficiency of this drug by conducting multi-institutional randomized trials.
On a similar note, researchers at CRCHUM have discovered a new surgical technique for lung transplantation, which is less invasive and surgically safer. The current lung transplantation procedures involve multiple scars, ribs’ cutting, and requires months of recovery.
At the global level, almost 1.69 Million demises occur owing to lung cancer every year, stated by the World Health Organization.
The new technique, VATS, requires a few small incisions to operate and cure such life-threatening disease. Researchers used a miniature video camera, which they inserted into the patient through one of the incisions. However, the risk of internal bleeding remains in case of VATS procedure too because the branches extended out from the pulmonary artery are very thin and fragile.
