News

The onset of pulmonary hypertension (PH), or high blood pressure in the lungs, may be a critical factor in predicting disease progression and poorer survival in systemic sclerosis (SSc), a study from France suggests. By grouping patients based on internal organ involvement, rather than relying on traditional classifications…

June is Scleroderma Awareness Month, and the scleroderma community is kicking into gear to spread awareness about the rare, chronic disorder. The National Scleroderma Foundation has selected “Stories of Strength” as this year’s theme, encouraging people with scleroderma to share their stories about how the disease has affected…

Most people with systemic sclerosis (SSc) have fibrosis, or scarring, that affects the heart muscle, a study in Australia shows. In two-thirds of the cases, heart fibrosis had no other, or secondary, cause, helping to explain mortality and sudden cardiac death in these patients, according to the researchers. Lung…

Lung function decline among people with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) was significantly slowed over the course of about four years of treatment with Ofev (nintedanib), according to a new analysis of trial data. The analysis was based on changes in forced vital capacity, or FVC, a measure…

Wasting of the skeletal muscle, older age, being male, and having swollen joints are among the risk factors for primary heart involvement associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc), according to a study using a worldwide database. Particularly, intestinal symptoms, widened blood vessels underneath the skin, called telangiectasia, and older age…

People older than 65 and women are more likely to develop localized scleroderma, a study in the U.S. shows.The risk is lower in African Americans. A higher risk of the disease was also seen in people who are unemployed, whereas those with less educational achievements, those whoo have less…

Women have a nearly fivefold higher risk of developing systemic sclerosis (SSc), according to the findings of a nationwide study in South Korea that confirmed sex differences in the chronic autoimmune disease also known as scleroderma. The higher risk of SSc for females versus males was more notable in…

Exosomes, tiny sacs containing biomolecules secreted from stem cells, thinned skin scarring in a mouse model of scleroderma, as well as skin samples from patients, a study reported. These findings support “the use of exosomes as a clinical treatment for [scleroderma] skin fibrosis,” the researchers said in the study,…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast track designation to the cell therapy ALLO-329 to treat active refractory (resistant to treatment) diffuse scleroderma, also known as diffuse systemic sclerosis (SSc). The FDA also gave ALLO-329 fast track designation as a potential treatment for two other inflammatory…

A Phase 1/2 trial testing Cabaletta Bio’s CAR T-cell therapy, rese-cel (resecabtagene autoleucel), in adults with hard-to-treat systemic sclerosis (SSc) is recruiting patients at several sites in the U.S. The open-label RESET-SSc trial (NCT06328777) is assessing the safety and efficacy of rese-cel as a single infusion into…