aTyr Pharma plans to test efzofitimod, its lead candidate for treating interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc), in a Phase 2 clinical study this year in the U.S. The plans come after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared an investigational new drug…
News
Oxygenated hemoglobin may be a new prognosis biomarker for systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients screened for pulmonary hypertension (PH), a study in Germany shows. Low levels of oxygenated hemoglobin (OxyHem), the protein that carries oxygen to body tissues, were significantly associated with worse survival among SSc patients. Also, the…
The levels of three blood proteins — endostatin, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH) beta subunit — may help predict the risk of progression from early to definite systemic sclerosis (SSc), according to a new study. “In particular, endostatin was the protein most strongly associated with…
Talaris Therapeutics plans to continue to recruit people with rapidly progressing diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) at risk for organ failure into FREEDOM-3, a Phase 2 clinical study of its investigational cell therapy FCR001. That’s in spite of the company’s decision to put a stop to its…
COVID-19 prompted blood vessel damage and a reduced blood flow to the limbs — a condition known as ischemia — in a girl with scleroderma (SSc), a case report described. The girl was ultimately discharged from the hospital after four weeks of inpatient treatment with blood vessel wideners known…
A new study shows that UVA1 phototherapy — a treatment strategy that uses specific wavelengths of ultraviolet light — may work to reduce scarring in scleroderma by activating the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). This finding implies that activating the AhR protein may offer therapeutic benefits in the chronic autoimmune…
FT011, a treatment candidate from Certa Therapeutics, was safe and led to clinically meaningful improvements for more than 60% of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients in a Phase 2 trial. After 12 weeks of treatment, patients given the investigational therapy showed gains in lung function and in physician-…
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) — technology used in medicine to obtain a three-dimensional dataset — may be a feasible, non-invasive technique to quantify the severity of Raynaud’s phenomenon associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc-RP), according to a new study. This “technology may present a novel, fast, and effective method…
Moderate doses of oral prednisolone, a corticosteroid, given for a short period may help to ease symptoms in people with early diffuse cutaneous scleroderma (dcSSc), a Phase 2 trial suggests. The study, intended to assess whether moderate dose of corticosteroids are safe and effective for early dcSSc, was affected…
People who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, are at greater risk for developing autoimmune diseases, including scleroderma (SSc), according to a large study. The findings support recent evidence that viral infections may increase the likelihood of autoimmune conditions, although the mechanisms remain unknown. “It is…
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