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Updated: May 14, 2026
Modeling Dysplastic and Functional Lung Alveolar Repair after Influenza Infection
Published on: September 19, 2025
Peptide targeting and imaging of damaged lung tissue in influenza-infected mice
Na Li1, Lu Yin, Damien Thévenin
1Interdisciplinary Research Group in Infectious Diseases, Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance in Research & Technology, 1 CREATE Way, #03-12/13/14 Enterprise Wing, 138602, Singapore.
Aim:
In this study, we investigate whether pH (low) insertion peptide (pHLIP) can target regions of lung injury associated with influenza infection.
Materials & Methods:
Fluorophore-conjugated pHLIP was injected intraperitoneally into mice infected with a sublethal dose of H1N1 influenza and visualized histologically.
Results:
pHLIP specifically targeted inflamed lung tissues of infected mice in the later stages of disease and at sites where alveolar type I and type II cells were depleted. Regions of pHLIP-targeted lung tissue were devoid of peroxiredoxin 6, the lung-abundant antioxidant enzyme, and were deficient in pneumocytes. Interestingly, a pHLIP variant possessing mutations that render it insensitive to pH changes was also able to target damaged lung tissue.
Conclusion:
pHLIP holds potential for delivering therapeutics for lung injury during influenza infection. Furthermore, there may be more than one mechanism that enables pHLIP variants to target inflamed lung tissue.
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