A Therapeutic for Radiation Induced Lung Injury

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nuclear accidents and terrorism present a serious threat for causing mass-casualty scenarios. In radiation events, many people receive non-uniform whole-body or partial-body irradiation. The risk of exposure to ionizingradiation due to terrorist activities could result in acute injury as well as long-term adverse health effects in thousands of people. The lung is one of the more radiosensitive organs and inhaling large quantities of radionuclides produces a spectrum ofsevere functional and morphological changes, ranging from radiation pneumonitis and pulmonary fibrosis. Although efforts to find suitable radiation countermeasures were initiated more than 50 years ago, no safe and effective radiation countermeasure has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Thus, there is a pressing need for radiation countermeasures. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a paracrine growth factor produced by cells of mesenchymal origin; Activation of the HGF pathway is