Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis landscapes: looking glass from pathology to therapy.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare chronic and ultimately fatal disease resulting in an aberrant scarring and thickening of lung tissue. Molecular pathogenetic mechanisms of IPF are still unknown and till now no effective therapy is known to really improve disease's outcome. A deeper understanding of IPF biology is now mandatory to clarify IPF origin in order to identify actionable targets. Here we discuss and analyze the data presented by a recent paper published by De Pianto et al. on the prestigious respiratory journal Thorax. The work is focused on how gene expression analysis can be applied to stratify IPF cases based on their risk of disease progression. Moreover they tried to match genetic and phenotypic profiles in order to predict therapeutic response and patients' prognosis.