Fibrosis, which mostly affects the lungs and hepatic tissues, accounts for up to 45 per cent of deaths in the developed world yet till date no effective therapeutic treatment has been developed, says a recent study.

Fibrosis, one of the age-related pathologies that disrupt organ functionality dramatically, is a progressive accumulation of extra-cellular matrix which occurs in a wide range of organs and potentially distort their structure and function.

Researchers at the US-based Insilico Medicine Inc utilised a new software tool to identify robust bio-markers of fibrotic disease and develop effective targeted therapy.

“Fibrosis is one of the age-related pathologies that disrupt organ functionality dramatically. Currently, there are no approved anti-fibrotic remedy and no reliable fibrotic bio-marker,” said Eugene Makarev, Vice-President, Insilico Medicine Inc at Baltimore, in the study published in the journal of Cell Cycle.

The researchers utilised the new software tool referred to as “Regeneration Intelligence” to evaluate the perturbation status of many signalling pathways.

This new system aimed to identify robust bio-markers of fibrotic disease and develop effective targeted therapy.

“Despite many efforts, fibrosis is often mis-diagnosed. Our system is supposed to help with proper and timely diagnostic,” added Makarev.

“Regeneration Intelligence” is a system that can detect hidden fibrotic molecular signatures based on a pathway network analysis.

The system can identify specific fibrogenic molecular changes regardless of detecting platform and tissue of origin.

With broad screening across multiple fibrotic organs, the system identified pathogenic pathways that served as potential targets for the anti-fibrotic therapy.

This approach led to a selection of the list of small molecules and natural compounds by their ability to minimise the signalling pathway difference between a fibrotic and a healthy state of the tissue.