A new treatment being developed at a Queensland university could potentially save lives by treating patients with a range of serious conditions.Researchers aim for it to treat Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and aid recovery in serious illnesses
If successful, critically ill patients could be treated with a newly developed protein called EphA4-Fc, which could repair and prevent damage to the cells lining the blood vessels that become damaged by inflammation.During the body's systemic inflammatory response — which is triggered when the body responds to serious infection or severe trauma, major surgery and extensive burns — the cells lining the blood vessels become "leaky" and "sticky".
The team that has been developing the treatment for more than a decade includes UQ's faculty of medicine lead researcher Associate Professor Mark Coulthard, a paediatric intensivist at Queensland Children's Hospital, and UQ's biomedical sciences school Professor Trent Woodruff and Dr Nemat Khan.Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett of the Queensland Brain Institute first developed the technology with UQ Emeritus Professor Andrew Boyd.
Dr Coulthard said the new partnership with CSL was another step in the process of progressing towards clinical trials.
Wow. That's huge!