Nanomedicine for Treatment of Acute Lung Injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Sadikot, Ruxana T.; Kolanjiyil, Arun V.; Kleinstreuer, Clement; Rubinstein, Israel

ALI and ARDS arise from direct and indirect injury to the lungs and result in a life-threatening form of respiratory failure with diffuse bilateral lung injury and severe hypoxemia caused by noncardiogenic pulmonary edema, which affects approximately 1 million people worldwide annually [1, 3, 21] . The importance of lung injury has been highlighted by the emergence of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome) [21] . The major reason underlying the lag in improvement in outcome is the lack of novel and specific therapies for ALI and ARDS [2] . As with inflammatory processes, lung inflammation is accompanied by many cellular and biochemical processes, and injury to both the pulmonary capillary endothelium and the alveolar epithelium. Despite improved molecular understanding, development of specific treatments for ARDS have yet to be developed.