MPH Alumna Hartert’s Team Explores Diabetes Drug’s Ability to Treat RSV Infection
A drug used to treat diabetes may point to new therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis — inflammation and obstruction of the lungs’ small airways. A multi-disciplinary team of Vanderbilt investigators has demonstrated that liraglutide reduces the inflammatory response to RSV infection in a mouse model of the disease.
The findings were reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The RSV strain used in the mouse model was isolated from an infant enrolled in a study of RSV and asthma directed by Tina Hartert, MD, MPH, Lulu H. Owen Professor of Medicine, and supported by an Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Center grant. Martin Moore, PhD, at Emory University, isolated and grew the viruses.