Novel Treatment Strategy for Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis¹

Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis (IPA) is commonly seen in immunocompromised patients, whereas neutropenia is the primary risk factor implicated in IPA. However, IPA also occurs in patients without neutropenia including those who are immunosuppressed due to long-term corticosteroid use. Pentoxifylline (PTX), a methylxanthine derivative, is used primarily for the treatment of vascular dysfunction. Recently, its function as a chitinase inhibitor has been characterised. In an animal IPA model, post-infection injection of PTX yielded improvement in survival duration and pulmonary fungal burden in non-neutropenic IPA mice. In addition, lower levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and interleukin 8 (IL-8) were observed in the PTX-treated group. Moreover, chitotriosidase (CHIT1) and chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1) expression was decreased after PTX treatment. Based on the therapeutic effects demonstrated in the mouse IPA model, PTX can potentially be a treatment strategy for IPA.

References

1 Feng et al. BMC Pulm Med 2021; 21: 31.