Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal lung disease with unclear aetiology and poorly understood pathophysiology. Although plasma levels of circulating cell-free DNA (ccf-DNA) and metabolomic changes have been reported in IPF, the associations between ccf-DNA levels and metabolic derangements in lung fibrosis are unclear. Here, we demonstrate that ccf-double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) is increased in patients with IPF with rapid progression of disease compared with slow progressors and healthy controls and that ccf-dsDNA associates with amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and lipid metabolism pathways in patients with IPF.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01071707.
Keywords: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
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