A team of researchers at Tulane University has found that the drug ipilimumab, which used to treat melanoma and some other types of cancer, could be the key to treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), an incurable disease that kills 50 percent of patients within three years.

The respective findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

In IPF, “aged” lung cells accumulate, causing scarring. But the immune system doesn’t remove them because of an excess of the CTLA4 protein, which blocks T-cells.

The aforesaid team found that ipilimumab suppresses CTLA4, enabling the immune system to clear away the damaged cells. Tests on mice have showed that this drug reduced fibrosis by 40-60 percent and restored lung tissue.

The researchers say they have found the first effective treatment that can reverse the scarring process.

This method could be used to treat some other diseases as well, such as Alzheimer’s disease or heart failure.

If approved, this method will be a breakthrough in treating the 3 million patients with IPF worldwide.