Antisecretory factor for use in treatment and/or prevention of acute respiratory failure

Abstract

The present invention relates to the use of antisecretory factor (AF) protein, homologues, and/or fragments thereof, having equivalent functional activity, and/or a pharmaceutically active salt thereof, for restoring and/or normalizing epithelial barrier function for treating and/or preventing acute respiratory failure. In particular, antisecretory factor (AF) protein, homologues, and/or fragments thereof, having equivalent functional activity, and/or a pharmaceutically active salt thereof, is (are) herein disclosed to be of use in counteracting and/or normalizing fluid transfer across epithelial cell barriers with a significant impact on a large proportion of patients with traumatic lung injury, such as but not limited to patients suffering from abnormal accumulation of fluid in the lung alveoli and/or bronchioles selected from the list of patients suffering from BPD, ARDS, IRDS, sepsis, SIRS, acute pulmonary edema, pneumonia, interstitial pulmonary edema and cardiovascular lung disorder.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.