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An enzyme can start a chain of events that leads to cells involved in tissue scarring reversing their fibrosis-generating activity, British and American researchers have discovered. The study dealt with the enzyme’s effect on myofibroblasts — cells involved in wound healing and inflammatory response. The discovery could lead to new therapies for the lung scarring…

Kadmon’s KD025 slowed the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and patients’ decline in lung function, a Phase 2 clinical trial shows. The IPF patients in the open-label trial (NCT02688647) had previously been treated with Genentech’s Esbriet (pirfenidone) or Boehringer Ingelheim’s  Ofev (nintedanib) — or had…

patientMpower, a U.K. digitial healthcare and advocacy company, joined others in voicing disappointment with the recent decision of a British advisory board to restrict the use of Esbriet (pirfenidone) to patients with moderate-to-severe idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). NICE’s final recommendations for Esbriet (marketed by Genentech) and its…

Pulmonary fibrosis patients have a new tool for learning about clinical trials of potential treatments. The Clinical Trial Finder is an online platform that the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation developed. It offers information on the more than 100 research opportunities listed on the National Institutes of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov website. An overarching goal…

Swiss researchers have identified a potential blood biomarker for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a precursor to the signaling molecule lysophosphatidic acid. Their study, ”Serum metabolic profiling identified a distinct metabolic signature in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis – a potential biomarker role for LysoPC,” was published in the journal…

David Curtis Glebe, a retired 64-year-old public prosecutor now living in Millsboro, Delaware, knows he’s lucky to be alive. In mid-2013, while in Arizona, Glebe was diagnosed with pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer (PNET) — the same disease that killed Apple’s founder and CEO Steve Jobs. After three years of progress…

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center plan a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the virus medication Valcyte’s ability to prevent lung tissue scarring in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients. The trial (NCT02871401) will cover 30 IPF patients who have had cytomegalovirus infections. This type of herpes virus causes mononucleosis.

Actelion Pharmaceuticals’ Tracleer (bosentan) increased the overall survival and reduced the hospitalizations of patients with pulmonary hypertension stemming from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF-PH, a Japanese clinical trial shows. Researchers published their preliminary findings on the ongoing long-term trial in the journal BMC Pulmonary Medicine. The title of the article…

Phelix Therapeutics has received a $201,665 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to continue studying  Calpain-based treatments for tissue-scarring diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and the liver condition nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Doctors need better treatments for scarring — or fibrosis — diseases, Phelix said. Current therapies address some of the inflammation that occurs in these…

Cells present in the outer rims of small blood vessels in the lung, called pericytes, convert from a healthy state into a fibrotic one, promoting the progression of pulmonary fibrosis, new findings suggest. The discovery shows how pericytes respond to the microenvironment in the lungs, especially the mechanical changes in…