News

Netrin-1, a factor produced by the extracellular matrix, drives the production and accumulation of fibrocytes, a fibrosis-promoting cell type in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)-induced pulmonary fibrosis, according to a study by Yale University School of Medicine researchers. Fibrocytes are cells that often reside in the extracellular matrix —…

Veracyte, Inc., recently announced that data from multiple studies supporting the ability of its diagnostic tests to help detect pulmonary disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), will be presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2016 International Conference taking place in San Francisco. Veracyte will discuss findings from a total of eight studies, two…

Mesenchymal stem cells can aid in treating autoimmune-related lung fibrosis by changing the composition of T-cells from a mainly toxic to a more regulatory type. The beneficial effects observed in the study were induced by the surprising contribution of TGF-β1 — a molecule normally considered strongly pro-fibrotic, indicating that treatments…

ProterixBio, Inc., is the new name for the company previously known as BioScale, Inc., reflecting a change in strategy. Whereas BioScale had focused on care management solutions for pulmonary and other diseases, ProterixBio will specialize in high-value clinical applications, such as diagnostic products and disease management services, with a…

Patara Pharma has announced the appointment of John Schmid to its Board of Directors. The company’s lead product, PA101B, is a potential  treatment for pulmonary fibrosis and moving through clinical trials. “John joins Patara’s board at a pivotal time as we advance our flagship program, PA101B, through multiple Phase 2 studies to improve…

More effective treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is needed for reasons as solidly grounded in economics as they are in basic healthcare, a study published in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy points out — showing that acute exacerbations and disease-related hospitalizations in lung fibrosis patients are associated with high…

Drugs targeting a pathway centered on a molecule named PI3K and a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) — another molecule in the same pathway — are in early, preclinical tests in a variety of disease conditions, and recently completed a Phase 1 cancer trial. A study from University College London  also found that…

Scientists from the Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden, reported findings from the first year of a national registry of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients (IPF), which showed that Swedish IPF patients have a poor quality of life and poor perception of their disease — despite a relatively modest level of disease severity.

A case report of a woman with pulmonary fibrosis and a rare telomere mutation raised the possibility that telomere-associated fibrosis can be observed without shortened telomeres. The study, “TINF2 Gene Mutation in a Patient with Pulmonary Fibrosis“, published in the journal Case Reports in Pulmonology, proposed that…

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, and other institutions applied an integrative genomic approach to study chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) to uncover the possible shared biological mechanisms in the two disorders. Findings suggested a common genetic network to the…