The University of Tasmania’s School of Health Sciences has been recognised as a national base for research into the fibrotic lung disease Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF).
A chronic lung disease characterised by a progressive and irreversible decline in lung function, the symptoms of IPF include shortness of breath, tiredness, a dry cough, and in many cases a rapid decline with many patients losing their lives within three years of being diagnosed.
College of Health and Medicine researcher Dr Sukhwinder Singh Sohal (Romy), who has dedicated years to lung disease research, said it was gratifying to see the School of Health Sciences research team recognised for expertise nationally in this important area of chronic lung disease investigation.
“It is quite big nationally and we are also leading at an international level, because the Australian IPF registry is the most prominent IPF registry globally, with the highest number of cases in the world at the moment,” he said.
“It is because of the expertise we have developed over the years that we were approached by Australian IPF registry to be asked if we would be happy to be the national centre, so I it’s quite gratifying to have our expertise recognised in this area of chronic lung disease.”
The School of Health Sciences latest research into IPF is focused on trying to understand what markers can be picked up in patient’s blood through liquid biopsies and in lung tissue, to help identify IPF in its early stages.
“Once diagnosed the disease progresses really quickly to fatality,” Dr Sohal said.
“So it’s really important to identify the disease early on to change its trajectory and improve quality of life of the patient.”
Researchers are also looking at the pathology of the disease, that is, what mechanisms are ‘switched on’ in the body to contribute to the disease’s aggressive development.
“For this work we are now the national centre. We will be the only centre in Australia looking at these pathological mechanisms in IPF,” Dr Sohal said.
Dr Sohal said the research had been supported recently (and in previous years) by generous NHMRC grants, as well as by the Clifford Craig Foundation funding and Respiratory Physicians at the Launceston General Hospital (LGH).
He said this latest research had a promising outlook.
“We are currently progressing and are having some amazing results,” Dr Sohal said.
“Recent data has given a really clear indication that some patients who are rapidly progressing with the disease, have a high number of particular bio-markers in their blood and tissue , that is already creating a very solid foundation to see that something different is happening in rapidly progressing patients,” he said.
“If we can identify these biomarkers early on it has a great potential to help patients down the track.”
Dr Sohal’s team is also looking closely at the high levels of infections in IPF patients and have already uncovered some novel facts.
“We found through our research that the bugs associated with these infections are very smart and use a host receptor in the body to access the airways- for which there was no information available previously,” he said.
“If we can block these receptors, it can help lessen hospital visits for patients and increase their quality of life.”
