News

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…

Treatment with Ofev (nintedanib) for up to four years was associated with a sustained slowing of lung function decline in people with systemic sclerosis (SSc) associated with interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). That’s according to new results from the open-label study SENSCIS-ON (NCT03313180), a three-year extension of the…

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is seeking participants for its survey-based study Living Rare, which aims to better understand the real-world lived experiences of people in the U.S. with rare diseases. Living Rare, the first large-scale study of its kind in the U.S., seeks to capture the…

Low levels of a type of white blood cell called natural killer (NK) cells may help diagnose pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in people with systemic sclerosis (SSc), a study in China suggests. In PAH, the blood vessels that supply blood to the lungs, called pulmonary arteries, narrow, restricting…

People with systemic sclerosis (SSc) face significantly worse sleep quality than those with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and healthy people, a study reports. Poor sleep hygiene and clinical factors, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, that is, acid reflux, and depression-like symptoms, were key contributors. These findings highlight how “enhancing sleep hygiene…

The presence of different autoantibodies specific to systemic sclerosis (SSc) can determine how the disease is likely to progress in terms of how patients feel or function, which could affect findings in placebo groups in randomized clinical trials and determinations of benefit with an experimental therapy, a study indicates.

Immunosuppressive medications may help to reduce inflammation in the heart and the overall burden of primary heart involvement that is associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc), a retrospective study suggests. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings, its researchers stated. The study, “Immunosuppressive therapy to treat newly diagnosed…

The CCL2 gene, which codes for a signaling protein of the same name, is “a common characteristic gene” of both systemic sclerosis (SSc) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a serious complication of SSc that causes the lungs to become inflamed and scarred, according to…