News

Cytori Therapeutics’ Habeo Cell Therapy may be effective only in scleroderma patients who have the more severe diffuse version of the disease, a Phase 3 clinical trial indicates. The trial failed to meet its main goal of improving all scleroderma patients’ hand function. Subgroup analyses indicated that those with…

The 19th Annual Scleroderma Foundation National Patient Education Conference is expected to bring together over 600 scleroderma patients, their families, friends, caretakers, and some of the world’s leading healthcare professionals and researchers. As previously announced, the conference will take place this week, July 21–23, in Chandler, Arizona. The venue…

Scleroderma patients without pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) were found to develop a mild but significant decline in the ability to exercise and in pulmonary vascular function during exercise, according to a four-year prospective study published in the European Respiratory Journal. Previous large-scale studies have demonstrated that PAH is a real and severe complication…

Certain immune cells contribute to the development of fibrosis, researchers at Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine discovered in a study that might overturn the view of lung fibrosis as a disease unaffected by immune processes. The report titled, “Monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages drive lung fibrosis and persist in the lung over the life…

The American Medical Association is adding descriptions of Cytori Therapeutics’ cell-based therapy for scleroderma of the hands to its authoritative database of medical procedures, services and technology. Because so many players in the American healthcare system use the database as a reference, the addition of the descriptions will help Cytori spread the word…

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) show high serum levels of adipsin, a peptide secreted from adipose tissue. Researchers believe adipsin could be used as a potential biomarker for SSc-PAH in these people. The finding was reported in the study, “Elevated Adipsin Levels are…

Today is the World Scleroderma Day, and to mark the occasion the Scleroderma Foundation is hosting a virtual “stepping out to cure scleroderma” walk-a-thon. The online initiative is an opportunity to connect with friends, family and supporters, and take part in an event to honor — or in memory of…

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Galectin Therapeutics a new patent that extends coverage of its candidate therapy GR-MD-02 to treat systemic sclerosis and other diseases in which high levels of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (or iNOS) enzyme causes inflammation.

Many systemic sclerosis patients develop pulmonary arterial hypertension, but not all who are suspected of having PAH are referred for testing, according to rheumatologist Janet Pope. She called for more commitment to screening in an editorial in Arthritis Research & Therapy. The piece was titled “Pulmonary arterial hypertension in…

Results of a Phase 2 clinical trial (NCT02465437) evaluating the effects of Corbus Pharmaceuticals’ anabasum (formerly known as Resunab or JBT-101) support this treatment as a potential option for patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis. The study showed that treatment with anabasum affects the activity of nearly 1,940 genes…