1. What is pulmonary fibrosis?
In technical terms, fibrosis means thickening or scarring of the tissue. In this case, the normally thin, lacy walls of the air sacs in the lungs are no longer thin and lacy, but get thick, stiff and scarred, also called becoming fibrotic. With this scarring, the architecture of the lung gets stiffer and is less efficient at delivering oxygen into the blood stream. In addition, the stiffness or fibrosis of the tissue makes it more difficult to expand the lungs and breathe. It takes more effort to breathe and this additional demand of energy leads to shortness of breath.
2. What causes pulmonary fibrosis?
There are a number of known causes of pulmonary fibrosis, but there are also unknown causes called idiopathic. Exposure to toxins like asbestos, coal dust or silica (including workers in the coal mining and sandblasting industry) can lead to pulmonary fibrosis.
Nuformix plc (LON:NFX) is a pharmaceutical development company targeting unmet medical needs in fibrosis and oncology using drug repurposing.
