[Exogenous surfactant therapy: new synthetic surfactants]

There are numerous pulmonary conditions in which qualitative or quantitative anomalies of the surfactant system have been demonstrated. In premature newborns with immature lungs, a functional deficit in surfactant is the main physiopathologic mechanism of the neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Since the landmark pilot study of Fujiwara, published more than 20 years ago, the efficacy of exogenous surfactant for the treatment of neonatal RDS has been established by numerous controlled studies and meta-analyses. Enlightened by a growing insight into both the structure and function of the different surfactant components, a new generation of synthetic surfactants has been developed. Various complementary approaches have confirmed the fundamental role of the two hydrophobic proteins, SP-B and SP-C, in the surfactant system, thus opening the way to the design of analogues, either by chemical synthesis or expression in a prokaryotic system. An example of these peptide-containing synthetic surfactant preparations, lucinactant (Surfaxin), has been recently tested in comparison to a synthetic surfactant that does not contain protein as well as to animal derived surfactant preparations. Major clinical outcomes between lucinactant and animal-derived surfactant preparations were fund similar in two randomized controlled trials, opening the way to a new generation of synthetic surfactants in the near future.