BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Understanding fibrosis

March 21, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

Researchers at The University of Alabama at Birmingham have identified idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis as a repurposing opportunity for fasudil, a Rho kinase inhibitor that Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp. markets as Eril to treat aneurysm. The key observation was that the drug acts on a pathway that converts biochemical or biomechanical stimuli into fibrogenic signals that sustain myofibroblast activation and survival.1

The team now needs to develop a formulation of fasudil or other Rho kinase inhibitors that works only in the lung and thus avoids systemic side effects...