Dry cough

CHICAGO, Sept. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nine leading patient organizations are uniting to present the fourth annual ILD Day on Wednesday, Sept. 18, to raise awareness and understanding of interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary fibrosis (PF). ILD encompasses a large group of more than 200 diseases characterized by inflammation and/or scarring in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe and get oxygen to the bloodstream. Continue Reading "Interstitial lung disease is debilitating and often difficult to diagnose, making early detection crucial." Post this Interstitial lung disease (ILD) affects more than 250,000 Americans. The fourth annual ILD Day will take place on September 18 to drive awareness of ILD. This year's ILD Day webinar, The Journey to Diagnosis: Process, Evaluation and Your Care Team , will take place from 12-1 p.m. CT. Visit ildday.org for information and to register for the webinar. "Interstitial lung disease is a debilitating condition that's often difficult to diagnose, making early detection crucial," said Scott Staszak, President and CEO of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. "If you or a loved one experiences a persistent dry cough, shortness of breath and fatigue, see a pulmonologist immediately. Treatments to slow the progression, along with resources and support, are available." More than 250,000 Americans are living with ILD and 50,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. Pulmonary fibrosis can be seen in many types of ILD, and the damage caused by ILD can be irreversible and worsen over time. Symptoms and Risk Factors of ILD The most common symptoms of ILD include shortness of breath, dry cough and fatigue. Other symptoms include chest discomfort, "clubbing" of the fingertips, loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss. Causes of ILD include the use of certain medications, radiation to the chest, and environmental and occupational exposures. In addition, patients with some diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, myositis, including dermatomyositis and polymyositis (DM and PM), sarcoidosis and Sjögren's, may develop ILD. A specific form of ILD, namely idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), primarily occurs in older individuals. Educational Webinar An educational webinar, "The journey to diagnosis: Process, evaluation, and your care team," will be held at 12 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, Sept. 18. The presentation will address how doctors recognize ILD and find the right diagnosis for each individual. Important information about the roles of your care team and how to advocate for yourself will be provided. The webinar will be presented by Dr. Sonye Danoff, pulmonologist with Johns Hopkins Medicine and Senior Medical Advisor, PFF Care Center Network. Registration is available here. The webinar will be recorded and published on the PFF YouTube channel. ILD Day is a collaboration between the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, The Myositis Association, PF Warriors, National Scleroderma Foundation, Scleroderma Research Foundation, Sjögren's Foundation and Wescoe Foundation for Pulmonary Fibrosis. To register for the ILD Day webinar or for more information about ILD, visit ILDDay.org. About ILD Day ILD Day was created to drive awareness of interstitial lung disease (ILD) and is recognized annually in September. It is presented by a collaboration of nine organizations representing patients affected by interstitial lung disease: Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, The Myositis Association, PF Warriors, National Scleroderma Foundation, Scleroderma Research Foundation, Sjögren's Foundation, and Wescoe Foundation for Pulmonary Fibrosis. For more information, visit ILDDay.org. About the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation The mission of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation is to accelerate the development of new treatments and ultimately a cure for pulmonary fibrosis. Until this goal is achieved, the PFF is committed to advancing improved care of patients with PF and providing unequaled support and education resources for patients, caregivers, family members, and health care providers. The PFF has a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and is an accredited charity by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance. The Foundation has met all of the requirements of the National Health Council Standards of Excellence Certification Program® and has earned the Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency. For more information, visit pulmonaryfibrosis.org or call 844.TalkPFF (844.825.5733).Contact: Dorothy Coyle 773-332-6201 SOURCE The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation

A recent study uncovers a pathway used during normal wound healing that has the potential to reverse IPF. he most common type of lung fibrosis -- scarring of the lungs -- is idiopathic, meaning of unknown cause. Researchers are urgently trying to find ways to prevent or slow idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and related lung conditions, which can cause worsening shortness of breath, dry cough, and extreme fatigue. Average survival following diagnosis of IPF is just three to five years, and the disease has no cure. A recent U-M study from a team led by Sean Fortier, M.D. and Marc Peters-Golden, M.D. of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at U-M Medical School uncovers a pathway used during normal wound healing that has the potential to reverse IPF. Using a mouse model, they simulated IPF by administering bleomycin, a chemotherapy agent that causes cell injury and confirmed that the resulting lung scarring resolved itself over the span of about six weeks. Because of this, "studying fibrosis is kind of tough," said Fortier. "If we're going to give experimental drugs to try and resolve fibrosis, we have to do it before it resolves on its own. Otherwise, we will not be able to tell if the resolution was the action of the drug or natural repair mechanisms of the body." However, he said, "there's actually a lot to learn about how the mouse gets better on its own. If we can learn the molecular mechanisms by which this occurs, we may uncover new targets for IPF." The process by which lung injury either leads to healing or fibrosis relies in part on what happens to a cell called a fibroblast, which forms connective tissue. During injury or illness, fibroblasts are activated, becoming myofibroblasts that form scar tissue by secreting collagen. When the job is done, these fibroblasts must be deactivated, or de-differentiated, to go back to their quiet state or undergo programmed cell death and be cleared. "This is the major distinction between normal wound healing and fibrosis -- the persistence of activated myofibroblasts," explained Fortier. That deactivation is controlled by molecular brakes. The study examined one of these brakes, called MKP1 -- which the team found was expressed at lower levels in fibroblasts from patients with IPF. By genetically eliminating MKP1 in fibroblasts of mice after establishing lung injury, the team saw that fibrosis continued uncontrolled. "Instead of at day 63, seeing that nice resolution, you still see fibrosis," said Fortier. "We argued by contradiction: when you knock out this brake, fibrosis that would otherwise naturally disappear, persists and therefore MKP1 is necessary for spontaneous resolution of fibrosis." They performed several additional studies using CRISPR techniques to demonstrate how MKP1 applies the brakes, mainly by deactivating the enzyme p38α, which is implicated in a cell's reaction to stress. Furthermore, they demonstrated that neither of the two current FDA approved drugs for lung fibrosis, pirfenidone and nintedanib, are able to turn off myofibroblasts. "That's totally in keeping with the fact that they do slow the progression, but they don't halt or reverse disease," said Fortier. Fortier hopes the discovery that this pathway reverses fibrosis leads to exploration of additional brakes on fibrosis. "So much work on fibrosis has focused on how we can prevent it, but when a patient presents to my clinic with a dry cough, shortness of breath, and low oxygen as a result of underlying IPF, the scarring is already present. Of course, we'd love a way to prevent the scarring from getting worse, but the Holy Grail is to reverse it."

Recent safety information has shown that codeine linctus is being misused recreationally for its opioid effects, instead of its intended use as a cough medicine. Credit: New Africa via Shutterstock. The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced that codeine linctus is to be reclassified as a prescription-only medicine due to the risk of abuse, dependency and overdose. This follows a consultation launched by the MHRA in July 2023 after Yellow Card reports indicated instances of the medicine being abused, rather than for its intended use as a cough suppressant. The consultation ran for four weeks, closing on 15 August 2023. Recent safety information indicates that codeine linctus is being misused recreationally for its opioid effects, instead of its intended use as a cough medicine. This poses a serious risk of addiction and potentially fatal overdose. Codeine linctus is an oral solution intended to treat adults with dry coughs. Opioid medications bind to specific receptors in the brain that reduce the perception of pain while also producing feelings of euphoria, relaxation, and sedation, making the drugs addictive, and potentially leading to dependence with prolonged use. Data from the Office for National Statistics revealed an increase in the annual number of deaths where codeine was involved from 88 deaths in 2011 to 200 deaths in 2021. See Also: MT-110 by Myosin Therapeutics for Substance (Drug) Abuse: Likelihood of Approval Xolair amplifies reach after FDA approval for treating food allergies In July 2023, the MHRA revealed a three-year corporate plan to create a quicker and more predictable legal landscape. The plan’s emphasis on the maintenance of public trust includes several initiatives, which include a pilot of public hearings on major safety issues throughout 2024 and 2025. In the announcement accompanying the reclassification, the MHRA’s chief safety officer Alison Cave said: “Patient safety is our top priority. Codeine linctus is an effective medicine for long-term dry cough, but as it is an opioid, its misuse and abuse can have major health consequences.” In the US, an ongoing opioid crisis demands alternatives to addictive pain medications. While some people are addicted to illicit opioids such as heroin, many are addicted to legal drugs such as codeine. Earlier this year, Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced plans to submit a new drug application for its non-opioid pain medication to the US Food and Drug Administration following positive results from a Phase III programme, marking a significant development in the field.