ArticleBMC pulmonary medicine2018
Anti-fibrotic effects of pirfenidone and rapamycin in primary IPF fibroblasts and human alveolar epithelial cells.
Article in BMC pulmonary medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Identification of Hub Genes in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and Their Association with Lung Cancer by Bioinformatics Analysis.Advances in respiratory medicine · 2023Pooled it
- TRPML1 agonist ML-SA5 attenuates pulmonary fibroblast activation by suppressing mTOR and restoring autophagic flux.FEBS open bio · 2026Article
- Serum mTOR: an associative marker of Graves' orbitopathy.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2026Article
- Rapamycin reduces peritendinous fibrosis but has a limited effect on intratendinous healing in a rodent Achilles tendon injury model.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Spatially resolved multiomics reveals the self-enforcing property of the leading-edge multicellular ecosystem of head and neck cancer.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- The impact of para-hydroxycinnamic acid on myofibroblast trans-differentiation in MRC-5 and A549 cell lines: in silico and in vitro evaluation.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Sirolimus for the treatment of Graves' orbitopathy.Thyroid research · 2025Review
- Pirfenidone combined with UC-MSCs reversed bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Emerging Concepts in Therapeutic Interventions for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.Seminars in respiratory and critical care medicine · 2025Review
- Can chimeric antigen receptors - based therapy bring a gleam of hope for thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy and other autoimmune diseases?Medical review (2021) · 2025Article
- Serum levels of rapamycin predict the response of Graves' orbitopathy to sirolimus.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2025Article
- Acneiform drug eruption from pirfenidone.JAAD case reports · 2025Article
- Engineering IL-10 and rapamycin to bind collagen leads to improved anti fibrotic efficacy in lung and kidney fibrosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Autophagy and Respiratory Viruses: Mechanisms, Viral Exploitation, and Therapeutic Insights.Cells · 2025Review
- Hypermethylation of Klotho and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ Concomitant with Overexpression of DNA Methyltransferase 1 in Adenomyosis.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2025Article
- Long-term outcome of Graves' orbitopathy following treatment with sirolimus.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2025Article
- Silicosis: from pathogenesis to therapeutics.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Targeting Fibrosis: From Molecular Mechanisms to Advanced Therapies.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Autophagy in the lung: guardian of homeostasis or driver of disease.Autophagy reports · 2025Review
- GTX-11 attenuates lung fibrosis, inflammation and vascular remodeling in preclinical models of lung fibrotic disease.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPirfenidone, a pleiotropic anti-fibrotic treatment, has been shown to slow down disease progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a fatal and devastating lung disease. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of fibroblast proliferation could be a potential anti-fibrotic drug to improve the effects of pirfenidone.
methodsPrimary lung fibroblasts from IPF patients and human alveolar epithelial cells (A549) were treated in vitro with pirfenidone and rapamycin in the presence or absence of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β). Extracellular matrix protein and gene expression of markers involved in lung fibrosis (tenascin-c, fibronectin, collagen I [COL1A1], collagen III [COL3A1] and α-smooth muscle actin [α-SMA]) were analyzed. A cell migration assay in pirfenidone, rapamycin and TGF-β-containing media was performed.
resultsGene and protein expression of tenascin-c and fibronectin of fibrotic fibroblasts were reduced by pirfenidone or rapamycin treatment. Pirfenidone-rapamycin treatment did not revert the epithelial to mesenchymal transition pathway activated by TGF-β. However, the drug combination significantly abrogated fibroblast to myofibroblast transition. The inhibitory effect of pirfenidone on fibroblast migration in the scratch-wound assay was potentiated by rapamycin combination.
conclusionsThese findings indicate that the combination of pirfenidone and rapamycin widen the inhibition range of fibrogenic markers and prevents fibroblast migration. These results would open a new line of research for an anti-fibrotic combination therapeutic approach.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.