Cystic Fibrosis News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Novel Pathway Has Potential to Slow Progression of Pulmonary Fibrosis

Mar. 25, 2025 — Researchers have found a potential new way to slow the progression of lung fibrosis and other fibrotic diseases by inhibiting the expression or function of Piezo2, a receptor that senses mechanical forces in tissues including stress, strain, and ...

Global Warming Can Lead to Inflammation in Human Airways, New Research Shows

Mar. 18, 2025 — In a recent, cross-institutional study partially funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers report that healthy human airways are at higher risk for dehydration and inflammation when ...

Newly Uncovered Mechanism Could Drive Next-Gen Cystic Fibrosis Treatments

Mar. 15, 2025 — Protein clustering mechanism on the cell membrane presents a new therapeutic target for cystic ...

Promising New Research Shows Potential to Cure Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections

Mar. 12, 2025 — Researchers have studied a new method to deliver antibiotics, specifically gentamicin, directly into the bladder tissue to better treat UTIs. They did this by creating nanogels combined with a ...

Pulmonary Fibrosis: Study Targets Proteins to Reverse Lung Scarring

Feb. 19, 2025 — A discovery offers new hope in the battle against pulmonary fibrosis, a debilitating lung condition that progressively makes it harder for patients to breathe. Scientists have pinpointed proteins in immune cells that, when blocked, could ...

Cystic Fibrosis Damages the Immune System Early on

Feb. 6, 2025 — Despite new medication, cystic fibrosis often leads to permanent lung damage. Researchers have discovered that the disease causes changes in the immune system early in life, presumably even in newborns. These changes lead to frequent inflammation ...

Neuroscientists Discover How the Brain Slows Anxious Breathing

Nov. 19, 2024 — Scientists discovered a brain circuit that allows us to regulate voluntary breathing, which connects the brain's emotional and behavioral cortical area to its automatic breathing brainstem area. The findings provide a targetable area for slowing ...

Researchers Develop Robotic Sensory Cilia That Monitor Internal Biomarkers to Detect and Assess Airway Diseases

Nov. 7, 2024 — Mechanical engineers have developed a system of artificial cilia capable of monitoring mucus conditions in human airways to better detect infection, airway obstruction, or the severity of diseases ...

A Lung Pathogen's Dilemma: Infect or Resist Antibiotics?

Oct. 28, 2024 — A new study reveals that the notorious bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa must balance between effectively colonizing human airways and developing antibiotic tolerance to ...

Beneficial Gut Microbe Has Surprising Metabolic Capabilities

Oct. 24, 2024 — Researchers discovered potentially far-reaching effects of a particular gut bacterium that was linked to better growth in Bangladeshi children receiving a therapeutic food designed to nurture healthy gut microbes. A strain of the bacterium harbored ...

Researchers Identify Potential New Strategy to Slow the Development of Liver Fibrosis

Sep. 17, 2024 — A study reveals advances in the understanding and treatment of liver fibrosis, a serious complication in the context of metabolic fatty liver disease, also known as MASLD (metabolic ...

Antibiotic Usage Can Damage the Protective Mucus Layer in the Gut

Sep. 12, 2024 — Researchers have found that a history of repeated antibiotic use causes defects in the normally protective mucus barrier of the gut, due to antibiotic-driven alterations in the microbiota. In a further study, the researchers found a ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:45pm EDT

New Chemical Tool for Infection Research: Visualizing the Sphingomyelin Metabolism

Aug. 29, 2024 — Researchers resent a new molecule for visualizing the sphingomyelin metabolism. This offers prospects for innovative therapeutic approaches in ...

How an Emerging Disease in Dogs Is Shedding Light on Cystic Fibrosis

July 29, 2024 — A canine gallbladder disease that involves the accumulation of abnormal mucus similar to that seen in human cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is caused by improper expression of the gene associated with ...

Enzyme-Powered 'Snot Bots' Help Deliver Drugs in Sticky Situations

July 17, 2024 — Snot might not be the first place you'd expect nanobots to be swimming around. But this slimy secretion exists in more places than just your nose and piles of dirty tissues -- it also lines and helps ...

Cystic Fibrosis: School-Aged Children Benefit from Triple Combination Therapy

July 10, 2024 — Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary disease that so far has been incurable. Those affected have thick, viscous mucus secretions in their lungs, and lung ...

Prime Editing Efficiently Corrects Cystic Fibrosis Mutation in Human Lung Cells

July 10, 2024 — Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common genetic disorders, causing thick mucus build-up in the lungs and other parts of the body, breathing ...

Scientists Map How Deadly Bacteria Evolved to Become Epidemic

July 4, 2024 — Pseudomonas aeruginosa -- an environmental bacteria that can cause devastating multidrug-resistant infections, particularly in people with underlying lung conditions -- evolved rapidly and then ...

New Insights on Polymicrobial Infections in Chronic Lung Diseases

June 11, 2024 — Chronic lung diseases are often accelerated and exacerbated by polymicrobial infections. An international study has identified two types of these so-called dysbioses in cystic fibrosis. They display ...

Computational Insights Into Colonic Motility to Aid Understanding of Ulcerative Colitis

June 3, 2024 — Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes inflammation and ulcers (sores) in the digestive tract. Ulcerative colitis ...

Seeking Medical Insights in the Physics of Mucus

May 7, 2024 — Understanding how mucus changes, and what it changes in response to, can help diagnose illnesses and develop treatments. Researchers develop a system to grow mucus-producing intestinal cells and ...

Study Reveals Potential to Reverse Lung Fibrosis Using the Body's Own Healing Technique

Apr. 12, 2024 — A recent study uncovers a pathway used during normal wound healing that has the potential to reverse ...

Landmark Study Involving Babies in Ireland Supports Use of Cystic Fibrosis Drug in Infants from Four Weeks of Age

Apr. 11, 2024 — A Cystic Fibrosis drug targeting the basic defect that causes the condition has been shown to be safe and effective in newborns aged four weeks and above, new research ...

Discovery of How Limiting Damage from an Asthma Attack Could Stop Disease

Apr. 4, 2024 — Scientists have discovered a new cause for asthma that sparks hope for treatment that could prevent the life-threatening ...

Study Shows Important Role Gut Microbes Play in Airway Health in Persons With Cystic Fibrosis

Mar. 13, 2024 — Findings from a new study reflect the important role that the gut microbiome (communities of bacteria) plays in the airway health of persons with cystic ...

Researchers Closing in on Genetic Treatments for Hereditary Lung Disease, Vision Loss

Mar. 5, 2024 — Researchers who work with tiny drug carriers known as lipid nanoparticles have developed a new type of material capable of reaching the lungs and the eyes, an important step toward genetic therapy ...

Pancreatic Cancer Lives on Mucus

Feb. 28, 2024 — Our bodies depend on mucus to function properly. As it turns out, so do some cancer cells. Scientists discovered mucus not only allows young pancreatic cancer cells to grow, but also prevents them ...

Researchers Develop Molecules for a New Class of Antibiotics That Can Overcome Drug Resistant Bacteria

Feb. 21, 2024 — About a decade ago, researchers began to observe a recurring challenge in their research: Some of the compounds they were developing to harness energy from bacteria were instead killing the microbes. ...

Healthy Omega-3 Fats May Slow Deadly Pulmonary Fibrosis

Jan. 2, 2024 — Higher levels of omega-3, the healthy fat found in fish and nuts, were associated with better lung function and longer transplant-free ...

Bacteria's Mucus Maneuvers: Study Reveals How Snot Facilitates Infection

Dec. 5, 2023 — Sniffles, snorts and blows of runny noses are the hallmarks of cold and flu season -- and that increase in mucus is exactly what bacteria use to mount a coordinated attack on the immune system, ...

Scientists Take a Step Forward in Understanding How to Tackle Chronic Infections in Cystic Fibrosis Patients

Nov. 21, 2023 — Scientists have engineered a living material resembling human phlegm, which will help them to better understand how a certain kind of infection develops on the lungs of patients with cystic ...

Neutralizing Antibodies That Target Resistant Bacteria

Nov. 2, 2023 — Antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a major challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. Due to numerous resistance mechanisms, infections with the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa are particularly ...

Breakthrough Discovery Sheds Light on Heart and Muscle Health

Nov. 1, 2023 — The human heart, often described as the body's engine, is a remarkable organ that tirelessly beats to keep us alive. At the core of this vital organ, intricate processes occur when it contracts, ...

Antibiotics for Common Childhood Infections No Longer Effective

Oct. 31, 2023 — Alarmingly high rates of bacterial resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics used to treat children and babies has been found in the ...

Human Lung Chip Leveraged to Faithfully Model Radiation-Induced Lung Injury

Oct. 17, 2023 — Researchers have developed a human in vitro model that closely mimics the complexities of radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) and radiation dose sensitivity of the human lung. Using a previously ...

Synthetic Molecules Can 'Ferry' Mucus-Clearing Ions Blocked by Cystic Fibrosis

Oct. 10, 2023 — Synthetic anion binders could one day help treat the chronic lung ...

Researchers Discover Disease-Causing Stem Cells in Lungs of Cystic Fibrosis Patients

Sep. 27, 2023 — Experts in cloning and stem cell science are reporting that five lung stem cell variants dominate the lungs of patients with advanced cystic fibrosis, and that these variants drive key aspects of CF ...

New Study Finds Blocking Histones Using Antibodies Alleviated Lung Fibrosis

Sep. 27, 2023 — Lung fibrosis is a debilitating disease affecting nearly 250,000 people in the U.S. alone with 50,000 new cases reported each year. There is currently no cure and limited available treatment options, ...

Connections Between Drinking Water Quality and Increased Lung Infections in People With Cystic Fibrosis

Aug. 25, 2023 — High levels of some minerals and metals in environmental water supplies may increase the risk of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) pulmonary infections in people with cystic fibrosis, according to a ...

Images of Enzyme in Action Reveal Secrets of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Aug. 14, 2023 — Advanced microscopy techniques give scientists valuable clues for how to fight an enzyme that is leading to a rise in cases of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections ...

Exercise Training and Yoga Can Help Improve Lung Function in Adults With Asthma

Aug. 11, 2023 — Yoga and breathing control practices, in combination with aerobic training, are particularly key exercises for asthmatic people seeking to improve their lung function, a new peer-reviewed study ...

New International Guidelines Will Improve Cystic Fibrosis Treatment

Aug. 10, 2023 — A team of global experts have spent a decade creating a guide to clinical assessments which help inform exercise training for people living with cystic ...