Medicine company FibroGenesis said on Thursday that it has achieved significant efficacy of its PneumoBlast product in an animal model of lung inflammation which resembles COVID-19.

Mice immune systems were stimulated to enter hyper-activation mode, which causes symptoms similar to COVID-19. Following COVID-19 simulation, the administration of PneumoBlast resulted in significant reduction in lung fluid accumulation as well as suppression of chemical mediators including interleukin-6 (IL-6), which are associated with poor survival in COVID-19 patients.

When the lung inflammation marker IL-6 was assessed, the control mice possessed 532.3 pg/ml of the cytokine, whereas lipopolysaccharide administration caused an increase to 4400.1 pg/ml. Treatment with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) resulted in a 26% decrease of IL-6 in the lipopolysaccharide-treated-mice to 3317.7 pg/ml, whereas PneumoBlast reduced IL-6 by 80% to 896.2 pg/ml. PneumoBlast resulted in a 54% improvement over BMSCs as well as a reduction of inflammation back to normal/healthy lung levels in just 24 hours, the company concluded.