Clinical Research Directory

Treatment of ARDS With Instilled T3

It is hypothesized that instillation of Liothyronine Sodium (T3) into the airspace will be safe, well tolerated, and will increase alveolar fluid clearance and decrease inflammation in patients with ARDS, reflected in improved oxygenation index (OI) and oxygenation saturation index (OSI).

Cough Capture as a Portal Into the Lung

The lung is a privileged organ; blood does not reflect most lung processes well, if at all. Therefore, for population scale diagnostics, the investigator team is developing non-invasive portals to the lung, for eventual early detection/risk assessment and diagnostic purposes. However, large macromolecules are not likely suspended nor readily detected in the breath. In particular, genomic DNA in the breath condensate (EBC) is very sparse, and where present, generally highly fragmented, not readily amenable to sequencing based assessments of DNA somatic mutation burden or distribution. Because gDNA (and protein) is challenging to obtain non-invasively from EBC, the study team considered alternative surrogate lower airway specimens. Cough capture is rarely done, and the investigator team is in the process of optimizing its collection. Importantly, the team will be evaluating how much of coughed material is from saliva contamination. Additionally, analyzing material that is target captured by capturing deep lung extracellular vesicles (EVs) using immobilized CCSP/SFTPC antibodies targeting EVs from distal bronchiole Club and alveolar type 2 cells could circumvent the mouth contamination problem, leaving a non-invasive portal to the deep lung suitable for large molecules, and in turn suitable for myriad epidemiologic and clinical applications. The investigator team proposes (Aim 1) to pursue optimizing cough collection, and testing the efficacy and practicality of partitioning cough specimen for deep-lung specific extra-cellular vesicles (EVs). This cough specimen will be compared to that from invasively collected deep lung samples BAL/bronchial brushings, and to the potential contaminating mouth rinse, all from the same individuals. (Aim 2) The study team initially proposes to examine these cough specimens for somatic mutations by SMM bulk sequencing for single nucleotide variation, developed in the Vijg/Maslov labs. Finally, the investigator team will (Aim 3) test all airway specimens (cough, mouthwash and BAL) for lung surrogacy of cough, using proteins known to be specific for lung, as opposed to oral cavity/saliva, in the Sidoli/proteomics core. The investigator team envisions that the translational impact of non-invasively obtained DNA or protein markers could allow for more rapid acute clinical diagnoses, and facilitate precision prevention and/or early detection of many acute and chronic respiratory disorders, including lung cancer, asthma and COPD, acute and chronic infectious diseases, and indeed systemic disorders of inflammation and metabolism.

Clinical Application Study of PET/CT for Differential Diagnosis of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

This study aims to explore the efficacy of Trop2, EpCAM-specific PET/CT imaging for noninvasive visualization of Trop2 or EpCAM expression levels in non-small cell lung cancer; and to explore the differences between novel target-specific PET/CT examinations and conventional 18F-FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of solid lung nodules.

PET Imaging CCR2 in Lung Inflammation

The primary objective of this study is to assess the lung distribution of the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging radiotracer Cu-DOTA-ECL1i, which binds to the specific population inflammatory cells, in patients with fibrotic lung diseases. This objective includes sub-studies to assess radiotracer distribution in the lung, the reproducibility of PET scans and the relationship of the scan to distribution of inflammatory cells in human lung tissue. The overall goal is to assess the potential of the radiotracer to track inflammatory cells in lung diseases.

Pulmonary and Inflammatory Responses Following Exposure to a Low Concentration of Ozone or Clean Air at Rest

The primary purpose of this study is to measure pulmonary function, symptoms, and pulmonary inflammatory responses in healthy young adults during and immediately after exposure to a low concentration of ozone (0.070 ppm) or clean air for 6.6 hours while at rest. This concentration is the current EPA NAAQS standard for ozone.

The Effects of Different Ventilation Modes on Patients With Pulmonary Lobe Resection

The objective of this study was to discuss the effects of different ventilation modes on patients with plasma inflammatory factor and respiratory function in patients with pulmonary removal.