The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) and Three Lakes Partners are joining forces in the fight against pulmonary fibrosis (PF), according to an announcement to mark National Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month in September. Three Lakes Partners will provide funding to PFF to help the foundation reach its goals of…
Processa Pharmaceuticals will explore and further develop the anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory compound HT-100 as a potential treatment for rare fibrotic-related diseases in adults, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, scleroderma, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The company announced that it has acquired the exclusive global rights to develop…
Immune cells can sense the mechanical forces at work in the lungs via a gate called PIEZO1, and deleting this gene in immune cells led to worse lung infections, researchers report. But its loss eased the inflammation associated with lung scarring in a mouse model of pulmonary fibrosis. Their study…
A protein called GDF15, which is secreted by a type of lung cells, is increased in the lungs and blood of people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a study shows. Supported by this finding, researchers believe that GDF15 may serve as a biomarker to help identify people who have…
Rare diseases deeply affect not only the children who experience them, but also their healthy brothers and sisters, as their parents can attest. Two entries in November’s “Disorder: The Rare Disease Film Festival” will focus on what siblings go through, according to the San Francisco festival’s co-founder,…
Patients who take either Esbriet (pirfenidone, sold by Genentech) or Ofev (nintedanib, by Boehringer Ingelheim) — two anti-fibrotic therapies approved to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — often experience significant gastrointestinal side effects, a Dutch study shows. The study, “Self-reported Gastrointestinal Side Effects of Antifibrotic Drugs in…
Developing gene therapies for rare diseases is one thing. Creating gene-edited “designer babies” is quite another. German legal expert Timo Minssen outlined the potentially explosive ethical landmines surrounding such issues during a recent talk at the New York Genome Center. Minssen directs the Center for Advanced Studies in…
Efforts to optimize treatments to address critical challenges in treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) has been given a boost by a more than CA$670,000 grant to support a collaborative project between Ceapro and academic researchers at McMaster…
Men who are active smokers and experience faster respiratory decline when diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are at greater risk to develop lung cancer, according to a study. Clinicians should be aware of this risk pattern in order to detect and treat lung cancer early in IPF patients, as…
Online forums have markedly altered how patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals communicate and connect. Even when miles apart, individuals can establish supportive relationships, share experiences and information, and sometimes simply vent. Bionews Services, a leading online health, science, and research publication company, has been introducing its own…
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