German Center for Lung Research

Endosomal Escape of siRNA Polyplexes: A Molecular Dynamics Perspective on Underlying Mechanisms

ABSTRACT To achieve a therapeutic effect, nanoparticles delivering nucleic acids must facilitate endosomal escape (EE) of their cargo. Despite extensive research, the mechanisms that lead to an effective EE are not sufficiently understood. Herein, we compare the EE behavior of fo...

Real‐World Experience With Multimodal Treatment of Resectable Stage II – III Non‐Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Single Institutional Analysis

ABSTRACT Neoadjuvant therapy has recently become an integral component of multimodal treatment for resectable lung cancer. However, real‐world data on perioperative morbidity and treatment adherence remain limited. This study aimed to assess the feasibility and safety of differen...

Pre-ECMO characteristics, organ dysfunction and exploratory mortality prediction in COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 ARDS treated with veno-venous ECMO: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract Objective The transferability of pre-ECMO characteristics and established mortality prediction tools across COVID-19 (C-19) and non-COVID-19 (nC-19) acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains uncertain. We compared clinical characteristics, organ dysfunction, res...

Safety and pharmacokinetics of inhaled aloxistatin: A first‐in‐human phase 1 dose escalation trial

Aims Aloxistatin (E64d) is a membrane‐permeable cysteine protease inhibitor prodrug that is converted by esterases to the active metabolite E64c (loxistatin). This first‐in‐human study evaluated the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of single ascending doses of inhaled E6...

Epitranscriptomic profiling of VSMC phenotypes reveals uridine modifications linked to post-transcriptional regulation

Background The phenotypic plasticity of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) can modulate atherosclerosis progression. Although several gene regulatory steps towards pro-inflammatory phenotypes have been well-studied, epitranscriptomic changes during this transition and their reg...

Perioperative Durvalumab for Resectable NSCLC : Updated Outcomes for Japanese Patients in AEGEAN

ABSTRACT In the phase 3 AEGEAN study, perioperative durvalumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved the primary endpoints of event‐free survival (EFS) and pathological complete response (pCR) in patients with resectable NSCLC versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone....

Dual use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes is associated with higher diastolic blood pressure in adolescents: The School*Vape*Science study

Background: E-cigarette use is increasing significantly worldwide, particularly among young people. However, the cardiovascular impact of nicotine exposure during adolescence remains unclear. Although cigarette and e-cigarette use are known to increase arterial stiffness in adult...

Diagnostic concordance of remote WSI-based thyroid cytology compared to conventional cytological diagnosis: a pilot study

Abstract Background Whole slide imaging (WSI) has emerged as a key component of digital pathology, enabling remote diagnostics and standardized evaluation. However, its diagnostic concordance in thyroid cytopathology, particularly under real-world conditions, remains insufficient...

The lung microbiome in childhood-onset severe neuromuscular disease with respiratory insufficiency: rationale, current evidence, and opportunities for oxford nanopore long-read sequencing

Abstract In severe childhood-onset neuromuscular disease (NMD), ventilatory muscle weakness and ineffective airway clearance drive recurrent infections and chronic colonization that is often culture-negative, polymicrobial, or both. The lung microbiome framework offers a unifying...

Sex-specific patterns of symptom burden, psychological distress, and work productivity impairment in post-acute sequelae of COVID-19: a 10-month dynamic cohort study

Abstract Background A considerable proportion of patients experience post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). Increasing evidence suggests sex-related differences, yet systematic longitudinal analyses remain limited. This study aimed to examine sex-specific differences in symptoms...

Quantitative and qualitative lung parameters in photon-counting CT: comparison of ultra-low-dose with standard low-dose protocols

Abstract Objectives Photon-counting CT (PCCT) enables dose reduction beyond energy-integrating CT, but ultra-low-dose acquisitions may impair assessment of airways and lung parenchyma. We evaluated the impact of ultra-low-dose (ULD) PCCT on quantitative and qualitative lung param...

Migration and tuberculosis transmission in Hamburg, Germany: insights from 25 years of molecular epidemiology

Abstract Background Tuberculosis (TB) epidemiology in low-incidence settings is increasingly influenced by the importation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (Mtbc) strains from high-incidence regions. Globally, more virulent “generalist” lineages such as Lineage 2 (L2) and Li...

The added value of echocardiography in pulmonary arterial hypertension risk assessment an artificial intelligence machine learning–derived analysis of the ULTRA RIGHT VALUE registry

Abstract Aims The right ventricle (RV) is a major determinant of outcome in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), but its assessment has not been completely incorporated in the risk of mortality scores. We therefore evaluated the added value of echocardiography of the RV to risk...

Nuclear Factor-κB Signaling in Murine Models of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Background: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive asbestos-associated cancer in which inflammatory pathways may contribute to tumor behavior. NF-κB signaling is a central mediator of inflammation and cell survival, but the relative contributions of its associated...

Clinical usability of an explainable AI decision support tool and evaluation of multimodal models in NSCLC

Abstract Despite a decade in, immunotherapy (IO) treatment selection in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains largely guided by subgroup analyses and imperfect programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and clinical scores. To our knowledge, I 3 LUNG ( NCT05537922 ) is currently the...

Influenza vaccine uptake, willingness, and reasons for non-vaccination among South African Hajj pilgrims in 2025

Influenza is a leading cause of morbidity at the annual Hajj pilgrimage, yet vaccination uptake among pilgrims varies across settings. This study assessed influenza vaccination uptake, willingness to accept vaccination before Hajj, and factors associated with vaccine hesitancy am...

Tozorakimab to Prevent COPD Exacerbations

BACKGROUND: Many patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have exacerbations despite receiving standard-of-care inhaled maintenance therapy. Dysregulated interleukin-33 signaling is implicated in the pathogenesis of COPD. Tozorakimab is a monoclonal antibody tha...

Mechanosensitive phosphorylation of NFATC4 at S213/S217 drives fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition and fibrosis

Mechanosensitive feedback between tissue stiffness and cellular contractile forces instructs cell identity. To characterize phosphorylation-mediated mechanosensing, we charted the global phosphoproteome dynamics of primary human lung fibroblasts on fibronectin-coated polydimethyl...

Impact of CPAP and ventilator system resistance on respiratory effort in healthy volunteers

Abstract Introduction Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is widely used for the treatment of acute and chronic respiratory failure and inspiratory support pressure (ΔP insp ) can be added to achieve non-invasive ventilation (NIV). We performed a physiological study to det...

Beyond benchmarking: an expert-guided consensus approach to spatially aware clustering

Spatial omics technologies have revolutionized the study of tissue architecture and cellular heterogeneity by integrating molecular profiles with spatial localization. In spatially resolved transcriptomics, delineating higher-order anatomical structures is critical for understand...