News

This week at the Scleroderma Foundation of Southern California’s 17th annual “Key to a Cure” gala, Genentech‘s Senior Group Medical Director of Immunology, Dr. Jeffrey Siegel, will receive the honor of the Spirit of Leadership Award. The award is given to prominent individuals who have contributed to the scientific and…

In a recent study entitled “B regulatory cells are decreased and functionally impaired in patients with systemic sclerosis”, researchers report that a specific population of B cells – regulatory B cells – with established functions in immune suppression, have their numbers markedly reduced and functions impaired in systemic…

In a recent study entitled “Difficulties in diagnosis of systemic sclerosis-related interstitial lung disease”, researchers present a case-report of a Caucasian woman and highlight the difficulties in identifying and diagnosing systemic sclerosis-associated with interstitial lung disease. The study was published in the Respirology Case Reports…

A new study recently published in the journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders revealed that patients with systemic sclerosis have a reduced incidence of Crohn’s disease in comparison to the general population. The study was performed by a team of researchers at several universities in Taiwan, and is entitled…

In a newly published paper in PLOS one journal entitled “Relationship between Body Mass Composition, Bone Mineral Density, Skin Fibrosis and 25(OH) Vitamin D Serum Levels in Systemic Sclerosis,” researchers from University of Foggia in Italy investigated if skin sclerosis (SSc) could…

In a recent study published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology, entitled, “Pulmonary Function Tests: High Rate of False Negatives in the Early Detection and Screening of Scleroderma Interstitial Lung Disease,” a team of researchers from the University Hospital Zurich led by…

Top-line results from the Apricus Biosciences, Inc. Phase 2a clinical trial for RayVa™ topical treatment in patients with scleroderma-related Raynaud’s phenomenon indicate the treatment is safe and effective. Patients tolerated treatment and reported a noticeable change in the way their skin temperature responded to a cold challenge. There are…

Preliminary results for the Phase 2 LARIAT clinical trial conducted by Reata Pharmaceuticals for bardoxolone methyl in pulmonary arterial hypertension will be presented at the upcoming 2015 American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) annual meeting in Montreal, Canada. Ronald Oudiz, MD, Professor of Medicine in David Geffen School of Medicine…

Late stage cell therapy developer Cytori Therapeutics, a company creating autologous cell therapies from adipose tissue to treat a variety of medical conditions, recently published its findings from a 12-month clinical follow-up of scleroderma patients who were enrolled in the Scleradec-I clinical trial on hand dysfunction associated with the disease. The Scleradec-I study, an…

A study was recently conducted to determine levels of vascular endothelial growth factor in the tears of patients with scleroderma. Vascular endothelial growth factor or VEGF has been found to play a major role in the development of new blood vessels in a number of diseases, including macular degeneration of the eye, diabetic…