{"id":5858,"date":"2024-02-07T06:51:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T12:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=5858"},"modified":"2024-02-07T06:51:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T12:51:13","slug":"covid-19-and-flu-ravaged-lungs-could-be-repaired-with-mrna-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/02\/07\/covid-19-and-flu-ravaged-lungs-could-be-repaired-with-mrna-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19- and Flu-Ravaged Lungs Could Be Repaired with mRNA Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genengnews.com\/topics\/infectious-diseases\/covid-19-and-flu-ravaged-lungs-could-be-repaired-with-mrna-therapy\/\">Genetic Engineering and Biotech News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respiratory infections, such as those caused by SARS-CoV-2 or influenza, can damage the lungs\u2019 delicate network of capillary blood vessels, compromising oxygen delivery and carbon dioxide removal. To overcome this damage, the lungs depend on the regenerative capacities of vascular endothelial cells. As valuable as these cells are, they can, according to University of Pennsylvania scientists, benefit from a little help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientists, led by Andrew Vaughan, PhD, focused on a repair pathway involving vascular endothelial growth factor \u03b1 (<em>Vegfa<\/em>) and the TGF-\u03b2 receptor 2 (TGF-\u03b2R2). Using animal models and human tissue samples, the scientists showed that delivering\u00a0<em>Vegfa\u00a0<\/em>via lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) greatly enhances modes of repair for damaged blood vessels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Details were published recently in&nbsp;<em>Science Translational Medicine<\/em>, in an article titled, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/scitranslmed.adg6229\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TGF-\u03b2R2 signaling coordinates pulmonary vascular repair after viral injury in mice and human tissue<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMice deficient in endothelial&nbsp;<em>Tgfbr2<\/em>&nbsp;exhibited prolonged injury and diminished vascular repair,\u201d the article\u2019s authors wrote. \u201cLoss of endothelial&nbsp;<em>Tgfbr2<\/em>&nbsp;prevented autocrine&nbsp;<em>Vegfa<\/em>&nbsp;expression, reduced endothelial proliferation, and impaired renewal of aerocytes thought to be critical for alveolar gas exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe developed a lipid nanoparticle that targets the pulmonary endothelium, Lung-LNP (LuLNP),\u201d the authors continued. \u201cDelivery of\u00a0<em>Vegfa<\/em>\u00a0mRNA, a critical TGF-\u03b2R2 downstream effector, by LuLNPs improved the impaired regeneration phenotype of endothelial cell\u00a0<em>Tgfbr2<\/em>\u00a0deficiency during influenza injury.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genengnews.com\/topics\/infectious-diseases\/covid-19-and-flu-ravaged-lungs-could-be-repaired-with-mrna-therapy\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: none;\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" title=\"JjkgYWG  US Ut\">JjkgYWG  US Ut<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Genetic Engineering and Biotech News Respiratory infections, such as those caused by SARS-CoV-2 or influenza, can damage the lungs\u2019 delicate network of capillary blood vessels, compromising oxygen delivery and carbon dioxide removal. To overcome this damage, the lungs depend on the regenerative capacities of vascular endothelial cells. As valuable as these cells are, they can, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5858\/revisions\/5859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}