Science: FibrosisWe tackle fibrosis – a growing health concern
We tackle fibrosis – a growing health concern
Fibrosis is a build-up of scar tissue that leads to organ failure
About fibrosis
If the body is injured, its natural response is to repair. The cells tasked with this repair are known as activated myofibroblasts.
But if the injury persists, these cells start to behave uncontrolled, resulting in a build-up of scar tissue in the affected organ. Over time, this slowly destroys the organ - often with fatal results.
Fibrosis is progressive – once it has started, it only gets worse. Apart from the option of transplantation, there is no cure. Many promising experimental medicines that were designed to attack this repair response have failed, due to severe side effects.
To correct the uncontrolled behavior of activated myofibroblasts, excellent medicines may already exist. However, these will only work if they are selectively delivered to these cells. For this purpose, we developed Fibrobodies®.
Fibrosis is a growing health concern
Fibrosis can be caused by lifestyle and environmental factors, such as viral infections, medicines, pollution, alcohol, and diet. It is associated with obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic inflammatory disease. As the incidence of these afflictions is rising – so is the incidence of fibrosis.
Reliable tools to detect early fibrosis are lacking. And once fibrosis is established, no truly effective treatment exists.
Affects as many as 50 million people in the EU and USA alone
In the USA alone, almost five million people suffer from chronic liver disease
COVID-19 has further boosted the incidence of lung fibrosis
Kidney
Tissue architecture
Tissue architecture
Normal tissue
Scar tissue stained red
Liver
Tissue architecture
Tissue architecture
Normal tissue
Scar tissue stained red
Lungs
Tissue architecture
Tissue architecture
Normal tissue
Scar tissue stained red
