# Combination of PPI and pirfenidone to enhance antifibrotic efficacy

> **NIH NIH R01** · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $1

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal lung disease of unknown etiology. Current
estimates of disease incidence are 93.7 per 100,000 and include over 125,000 cases in the United States.
Recently the FDA approved two drugs, pirfenidone and nintedanib. However, these therapies only slow the
disease progression but are unable to reverse established fibrosis and cure IPF. Thus, there is an opportunity
to develop a combination therapy that enhances the efficacy of the current antifibrotic drugs to treat IPF.
According to our new study, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) might be a choice of drug to combine with
pirfenidone for IPF. This conviction stems from our extended studies of high throughput screening (HTS)
130,000 compounds to discover and validate PPIs as significant regulators of processes involved in lung
inflammation and fibrosis using molecular, cell biological and preclinical models. In addition, bioinformatics
analysis of our interstitial lung disease (ILD) database of 130 IPF patients indicated that patients who happen
to be on PPIs had significant lung transplant-free survival compared to controls (1241 days Vs 730 days,
p<0.005). Recently, the evidence-based guideline for treatment of IPF conditionally recommended the use of
PPIs in IPF. More recently, data from 623 IPF patients who participated in pirfenidone clinical trials indicated
that the patients who were on a combined pirfenidone plus PPI therapy had more favorable outcomes including
progression-free survival compared to IPF patients who were on pirfenidone alone. However, neither the
conditional recommendation of PPIs for IPF nor the promising anecdotal evidence is based on molecular
understanding of how PPIs regulate the disease process in IPF and how they interact with the antifibrotic drugs
Our mechanistic studies indicate that PPIs independently inhibit inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) while
upregulating heme oxygenase (HO1) expression in IPF lung fibroblasts to influence processes involved in lung
remodeling. Our preliminary data of combined pirfenidone and esomeprazole therapy demonstrates profound
inhibition of fibroblast proliferation and collagen deposition to enhance antifibrotic efficacy. Accordingly, we
plan to test our central hypothesis “suppression of iNOS, and activation of HO1 by esomeprazole, together with
the antifibrotic action of pirfenidone, is able to slow or halt established lung fibrosis orchestrated by
dysregulated nitrosative/oxidative stress and fibroproliferation”. To test this, we propose the following aims: i)
understand the mechanism(s) by which dysregulated iNOS-HO1 promotes fibrogenesis. Here, we plan to
evaluate the mechanism by which iNOS suppression and HO1 activation regulates fibroblast proliferation and
collagen production ii) decipher interaction(s) between PPI and iNOS/HO1 to influence the disease process in
IPF. iii) evaluate the in vivo efficacy of esomeprazole and pirfenidone combination in ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10165794
- **Project number:** 5R01HL137703-05
- **Recipient organization:** BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Yohannes T Ghebre
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10165794

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10165794, Combination of PPI and pirfenidone to enhance antifibrotic efficacy (5R01HL137703-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10165794. Licensed CC0.

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