News

Levels of the cytokine CXCl4 in the bloodstream drop sharply in response to immunosuppressive therapy, and are associated with improved lung function in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), a study shows. The research, “Changes in plasma CXCL4 levels are associated with improvements in lung function…

Cytori Therapeutics will expand the development of its ECCS-50 scleroderma treatment to include secondary Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP), under the brand Habeo Cell Therapy. “Habeo … means ‘to hold’ in Latin,” John Harris, vice president and general manager of Cytori Cell Therapy, said in a press release. “The name…

Frequent cough, which commonly occurs in lung disease related to scleroderma correlates both with the presence and severity of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD – a chronic digestive disease where stomach acid flows back into the esophagus), and interstitial lung disease (ILD – a condition characterized by the progressive scarring of the lung tissue between the air sacs), suggests a study published in the medical journal Chest.

Many scleroderma patients die early in the course of the disease, and studies that measure mortality without taking that into consideration tend to underestimate death rates in the disease, according to a new report. Researchers compared a group of patients in the early stages of scleroderma to a group with participants at…

Protagen has launched NavigAID SSc, a new disease stratification assay that, by measuring serum biomarkers, can define specific systemic sclerosis (SSc) patient subgroups, thereby facilitating differential diagnosis and supporting the development of personalized therapeutics in SSc. SSc is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the body. The condition…

At its 12th Annual Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine gala in New York, the Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) raised almost $800,000 for scleroderma research. Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine is the SRF’s signature fundraiser. It’s a night of gourmet cuisine and entertainment, featuring celebrity chefs and appearances from some of the biggest…

Current methods of dividing scleroderma patients into groups, based on characteristics of their disease in order to predict its likely progression, gives highly variable results, researchers reported, noting that no single method is able to correctly predict outcomes across groups. The study, “Subsets in systemic sclerosis: one size does not…

A rare condition of scleroderma, known as keloidal or nodular scleroderma, characterized by the presence of rigid and well-defined nodules and plaques that look like overgrown scars (keloids), was reported in a case study published in the journal Case Reports in Dermatology. Cases of nodular scleroderma were reported in patients…

Activating a class of nuclear receptors, called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), with the drug IVA337 eased fibrosis in an animal model of systemic sclerosis, researchers reported. The study, “Pan PPAR agonist IVA337 is effective in prevention and treatment of experimental skin fibrosis,” was published in the journal…

Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) has the potential to treat digital ulcers and Raynaud’s symptoms in patients with scleroderma, as recently reported by Scleroderma News. Now, the researcher behind the study — Edward Harris of the Scleroderma Education Project, a research fellow at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of…