$219K grant awarded to UT Tyler’s lung scarring project

TYLER — Our news partner KETK is reporting that the University of Texas at Tyler was awarded a $219,000 grant to help fund a professor’s pulmonary fibrosis treatment project. UT Tyler School of Medicine professor, Dr. Sreerama Shetty, will conduct a study aimed at finding potential treatments for pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that causes scarring and thickening to the lungs.

This study involves radiation treatment with a special peptide that was developed in Shetty’s lab, according to the university.

Shetty’s first peptide was developed in his lab and is known as CSP7. The peptide is currently receiving phase two clinical trials as a potential treatment for people with various forms of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

The university said that smaller levels of radiation are used to treat breast and lung cancer to help minimize lung damage. One downside of using these smaller radiation levels is they can sometimes cause pulmonary fibrosis and the radiation can miss resistant tumors that spread quickly.

Shetty hopes these peptides will both prevent pulmonary fibrosis and allow for higher radiation that can destroy more cancerous cells, possibly increasing the pulmonary fibrosis survival rate.

“The survival rate after five years is 20 percent,” Shetty said. “Previously, we’ve studied how these
peptides can be used to treat fibrosis from smoking or exposure to silica through work in
construction, fracking, mining or manufacturing. Now, we are learning that these peptides
have the potential to treat fibrosis from radiation and even prevent it.”

The MD Anderson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute will work on this project with Shetty to help gain a better understanding of what these peptides can do for pulmonary fibrosis treatment. The grant was donated by the National Institutes of Health and UT Tyler is grateful for the possibilities this study could unlock.

“This grant reflects the kind of impactful, collaborative research we’re committed to at UT
Tyler,” School of Medicine Dean Dr. Sue Cox said. “Dr. Shetty’s work could lead to lifechanging treatment options for patients facing pulmonary fibrosis, especially those undergoing
cancer therapies.”