Therapeutic effects of MEL-dKLA by targeting M2 macrophages in pulmonary fibrosis.
Biomed Pharmacother
; 178: 117246, 2024 Sep.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39096617
ABSTRACT
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive lung disease characterized by excessive extracellular matrix accumulation and myofibroblast proliferation with limited treatment options available. M2 macrophages are pivotal in pulmonary fibrosis, where they induce the epithelial-to-mesenchymal and fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transitions. In this study, we evaluated whether MEL-dKLA, a hybrid peptide that can eliminate M2 macrophages, could attenuate pulmonary fibrosis in a cell co-culture system and in a bleomycin-induced mouse model. Our findings demonstrated that the removal of M2 macrophages using MEL-dKLA stimulated reprogramming to an antifibrotic environment, which effectively suppressed epithelial-to-mesenchymal and fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition responses in lung epithelial and fibroblast cells and reduced extracellular matrix accumulation both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, MEL-dKLA exhibited antifibrotic efficacy without damaging tissue-resident macrophages in the bleomycin-induced mouse model. Collectively, our findings suggest that MEL-dKLA may be a new therapeutic option for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Bleomycin
/
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
/
Macrophages
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Biomed Pharmacother
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Country of publication:
France