News

In July 2014, Edward Harris launched a website called the Scleroderma Education Project, where he writes and publishes articles providing comprehensive, unbiased, and research-based information about scleroderma. His articles are crafted to an audiences’ varied concerns — including a March 8 post on organ involvement in the disease — and…

A research team has developed a cannabinoid-based drug that stimulates not only one, but two, receptors believed to be involved in fibrosis development in scleroderma. The drug, VCE-004.8, prevented the formation of fibrosis-promoting myofibroblasts in culture and stopped fibrotic changes in a mouse model of dermal fibrosis. Findings from these…

Canada-based ProMetic Life Sciences, a global biopharma, recently announced it will launch a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with scleroderma to evaluate its lead product PBI-4050. Drug candidate PBI-4050, taken orally, has confirmed safety and efficacy profiles through a series of in vivo studies in fibrosis. Fibrosis…

The European Scleroderma Trials and Research group (EUSTAR) and the World Scleroderma Foundation recently announced the launch of a scholarly journal dedicated to coverage of research and clinical data regarding systemic sclerosis (SSc) and related autoimmune and fibrotic diseases, called the Journal of Scleroderma and Related Disorders (JSRD).

Therapeutics targeting microRNA showed signs of success in mouse models of scleroderma — particularly in skin lesions with topical applications of miR-155 antagonist, according to the results of a study titled “Targeting miR-155 to Treat Experimental Scleroderma,” published in the journal Scientific Reports. MiRNA…

A new technique called nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) is a potential way of identifying systemic sclerosis patients at risk of disease progression and severity, according to a presentation titled “Sensitivity to Change of NAilfold Videocapillaparoscopy and Relationship with Disease Progression,” presented at the 4th Systemic Sclerosis World Congress recently held in Lisbon, Portugal.

Patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) frequently develop problems in the heart’s right ventricle. A new study from the Leiden University Medical Center, in the Netherlands, found that both pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension were independently linked to the disruption of right ventricular function. Researchers know that several mechanisms might contribute to the development of…

The organizing committee of the 4th Systemic Sclerosis World Congress recently held in Lisbon, Portugal on Feb. 18-20 recognized Inventiva, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of treatments for fibrosis, oncology, and orphan diseases, for its innovative approach in the development of its lead drug candidate, IVA337, a promising…

Researchers at Germany’s University of Luebeck and Charité University recently presented a study where they reported that circulating antibodies against specific chemokine (small proteins with an important role in the immune system) receptors exist in higher levels in patients with systemic sclerosis, and these antibodies correlate with disease progression and clinical…

Researchers at ChemomAb and Meir Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the University of Florence, Italy, recently presented a study investigating the therapeutic effect of the monoclonal antibody CM-101 in animal models of systemic sclerosis (SSc) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The data was presented last week in a talk…