TWO IRISH universities are leading clinical trials to investigate whether patients with acute severe respiratory failure may find relief from statins, the drug commonly used to treat cholesterol.
Some 150 patients have been recruited for the trial run by NUI Galway (NUIG) and Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB) in collaboration with the Irish Critical Care Trials group.
Acute respiratory distress syndrome can be caused by lung failure after major surgery, infections such as H1N1 influenza or injury in a road traffic incident.
The condition can affect any age group, and is often fatal.
Those who recover from lung injury can experience a poorer quality of life, the joint research team points out.
“Unfortunately, to date there is no effective treatment for this lung injury,” NUIG professor of anaesthesia and consultant anaesthetist John Laffey explained.
The researchers are investigating the possibility that the drug simvastatin, which is commonly prescribed for high cholesterol, can be both effective and safe for people with lung injury.
QUB professor of intensive care medicine and Royal Victoria Hospital consultant, Danny McAuley, said that blood samples would be taken to measure markers of inflammation.
This will allow the research teams to determine if simvastatin can reduce the immune response which causes the lung injury.
“In addition, we will determine how severe the damage to the patients’ lungs is, and how fast they recover,” Prof McAuley said.
People will be randomly divided into two groups; one group will be given the active drug and the other a placebo.
The study is being conducted across the island of Ireland and in intensive care hospital units in England and Scotland.
The research is being funded by the Health Research Board, and the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme which is funded by the British Medical Research Council and the British National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), with contributions from organisations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
