Imaging FIB ONE in the Human Lung Using Endomicroscopy
FIB ONE · Ранняя фаза 1
Об исследовании
While the process of fibrosis is essential for normal wound healing, an excessive and uncontrolled 'fibrotic' response can result in impaired tissue structure and function. In other words, affected 'fibrotic' tissues are unable to heal back to normal and therefore don't work as effectively as they normally would. In the case of the lung, fibrosis can occur across large parts of the lung such as in conditions like Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and sarcoidosis or it can occur in much smaller patches such as around the borders of some lung tumours. At the moment the investigators don't fully understand the mechanisms of fibrosis and so therefore cannot monitor or treat these conditions as effectively as the investigators could. Despite the significant global financial burden of these diseases, treatment options are very limited and monitoring of disease progression remains a real challenge. In an effort to address this problem, the research group are currently developing a library of novel optical molecular imaging SmartProbes that are targeted against key pathological processes in the human lung. The functional profile for this portfolio of probes is that they exhibit high stability and specificity in vivo and have a short activation time permitting rapid point-of-care in situ molecular profiling enabling in the future, improved diagnostic certainty and stratification for targeted pharmacological intervention. This clinical microdosing study protocol focuses around the intrapulmonary delivery of microdoses (\<100µg) of the Smartprobe Fibroproliferation (FIB ONE) to disparate regions of the human lung to highlight MMP activity combined with an active MMP inhibitor (AZD1236) to the distal lung. This approach will enable the research team to directly demonstrate the utility of this SmartProbe-based platform in the validation of drug target engagement in areas of suspected fibroproliferation (characterised by increased MMP activity).