Margarida Maia, PhD, science writer —

Less than 14 months after stopping its GALACTIC-1 study for certain patients due to safety concerns, Galecto has hit its enrollment target for the Phase 2b trial — now under a revised protocol — testing its investigational inhaled therapy GB0139 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Galecto had resumed trial…

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), an antioxidant found naturally in the body and some foods, may help airway basal stem cells survive and ease symptoms of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a study in mice given both in a transplant suggests. Researchers observed that more airway basal stem cells, a type of…

Dosing has begun in healthy volunteers in a Phase 1 clinical trial of ISM001-055, a small molecule potential treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) developed using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Insilico Medicine announced. Up to 80 adults in this study  (NCT05154240), currently enrolling at its one…

Pliant Therapeutics will start testing, in trial, a higher dose of its investigational oral small molecule PLN-74809, an anti-fibrotic therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The higher dose of 320 mg will be given to about 28 adults with IPF once daily for at least six months as…

Two protein kinases, called DCLK1 and STK33, may serve as candidates for a molecular targeted therapy of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a study reported. Current anti-fibrotic therapies for IPF have been shown to slow disease progression. One such approved treatment, Ofev (nintedanib), works by blocking the tyrosine kinase. But…

The more monocyte immune cells that circulate in a person’s bloodstream, the greater the odds that lung abnormalities, such as those linked to pulmonary fibrosis, will show up on a CT imaging scan, a study found. Researchers also observed that a higher monocyte count increased the odds of lung…

Algernon Pharmaceuticals hit the full enrollment of 20 patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in its Phase 2 study of NP-120 (ifenprodil) for persistent, hard-to-treat cough, a common symptom of the disease. Early interim data from the study (NCT04318704), underway in Australia and New Zealand, showed…

Fibrosis or scarring in the lungs may blunt the ability of the body’s immune cells to fight off an infection in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a study in mice found. Researchers observed that when isolated from a fibrotic lung, macrophages — a type of white blood cells that engulfs…

Pulmonary rehabilitation is as effective a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) as it is for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a real-world study found. “Patients with IPF have similar completion rates and magnitude of response to pulmonary rehabilitation [to patients with COPD],” its scientists wrote. “These data reinforce the…

A signaling molecule called interleukin 35 (IL-35) is at unusually high levels in lung tissues from mice and in people with pulmonary fibrosis (PF), and seems to play a role in slowing disease progression, a study found. These findings indicate that IL-35 might be a new therapeutic target for…