• Universitat de València

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a type of respiratory failure with low blood oxygen concentrations, usually caused by diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) that begins with the detachment of pneumocytes from the alveolar wall. Sepsis, such as that which aggravated COVID-19, is the most common cause of ARDS, a disorder that typically affects humans.

ARDS, which seriously compromises the patient's life, does not have a specific treatment and generic life-support treatments are used, which are relatively ineffective and not free of toxicity, with mortality rates of up to 50% in developed countries.

Only some of the remedies for ARDS are marketed at high prices. Therefore, there is a need to find new remedies that are economically sustainable, more effective and with fewer adverse effects.

Researchers at the Universitat de València have discovered that the GPBP1 protein mediates the detachment of pneumocytes that causes DAD and ARDS through a genuinely human mechanism and have developed a novel compound to specifically inhibit this mechanism.

The compound of the invention has been designed to stop the activity of the GPBP1 protein that causes DAD without interfering with the normal activity of the protein, thus enabling the development of drugs for the treatment of ARDS with guarantees.

The invention makes it possible to cover the lack of specific treatments for ARDS, demonstrating its efficacy, reducing the toxicity presented by the current generic therapeutic alternatives and at a significantly lower cost.

The main application of the technology is in the pharmaceutical and drug development sector for the treatment of ARDS.

The main advantages of the invention are:

• Efficacy in the treatment of ARDS originating from multiple causes.
• Lower toxicity in therapeutic doses than generic treatments.
• Ease of synthesis.
• Cost reduction and easily scalable production of compounds.
• High stability at room temperature (>5 years).
• It does not require special storage, transportation and administration measures.

• Patent applied