Author Archives: Alice Melão, MSc

Cantargia will start the preclinical development of a new antibody, called CAN10, intended to treat people with scleroderma and myocarditis. The company aims to launch a Phase 1 clinical trial in late 2021. CAN10 was designed to specifically block the activity of the interleukin 1…

A single dose of an engineered antibody known as CD45-ADC can effectively eliminate disease-causing immune cells and ease the symptoms of scleroderma in mice, studies show. CD45-ADC is an example of Magenta Therapeutics‘ efforts to develop targeted antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to specifically remove disease-causing cells from the…

Real-world clinical data support the use of Opsumit (macitentan) to treat people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) due to scleroderma (PAH-SSc). The findings revealed similar safety results and comparable therapeutic efficacy in people with PAH-SSc as seen in patients with idiopathic or hereditary…

Blocking the activity of estrogen may worsen skin fibrosis in people with scleroderma, according to a study in mice. Researchers from the Paris Descartes University, in France, believe that a lack of estrogen’s beneficial effects may help explain why scleroderma more commonly affects women after menopause — when…

Raynaud’s Association is launching several activities during October to raise awareness about Raynaud’s phenomenon, and help those affected by the condition. Either in its primary form, or linked to other illnesses such as scleroderma, Raynaud’s is characterized by discoloration of the fingers and toes, with reduced sensitivity…

Kadmon Holdings started a Phase 2 clinical trial testing its inhibitor KD025, with the first patient with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (SSc) being dosed, the company announced. KD025 is a selective, orally available inhibitor of Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase 2 (ROCK2), an enzyme involved in signals that modulate the…

Treatment with pirfenidone fails to improve lung function in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD), results of a clinical trial show. Trial results were discussed at the 2019 Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) in Madrid, during an oral presentation titled “…

Higher blood viscosity may help clinicians identify patients with systemic sclerosis at risk of having pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a serious life-threatening respiratory complication. The finding was reported by Turkish researchers in the study “Whole blood viscosity in systemic sclerosis: a potential biomarker of pulmonary hypertension?”…

Michigan Medicine researchers have been awarded approximately $10.2 million by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence to explore potential treatments for autoimmune diseases, including scleroderma. Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of NIH, the grant will be used to…

Enrollment has been completed in an ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial assessing the safety and efficacy of experimental therapy lenabasum in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Corbus Pharmaceuticals, lenabasum’s developer, expects to announce top-line results from the study during the summer of 2020, and hopes they will…