Double-blind Placebo-controlled Pilot Study of Sirolimus in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2016-03-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an illness characterized by progressive decline in
lung function and premature death from respiratory failure. Fibrocytes are a novel population
of bone marrow-derived circulating progenitor cells that have been shown to traffic to the
lungs and contribute to fibrosis in animal models of pulmonary fibrosis, and whose numbers
correlate with the degree of fibrosis and with survival in human pulmonary fibrosis. The
investigators propose to test the hypothesis that therapy with the mTOR inhibitor, sirolimus,
reduces the number of circulating fibrocytes in patients with IPF. The investigators propose
to test this hypothesis in short-term pilot trial of sirolimus in patients with IPF to
determine its effect on the number and phenotype of circulating fibrocytes.