Scientists at the University of Sydney have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection and forms a natural protective barrier in the human body. Leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 15 (LRRC15) is an inbuilt receptor that binds the SARS-CoV-2 virus without passing on the infection. The discovery opens a new area of immunology research around LRRC15 and suggests a pathway to develop new drugs to prevent viral infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19, but also to deal with fibrosis in the lungs.

Certa Therapeutics Pty Ltd. is progressing antifibrotic agent FT-011 to phase III trials following positive results in a phase II trial that showed clinically meaningful improvements for more than 60% of patients with scleroderma in 12 weeks. FT-011 targets a previously undrugged G protein-coupled receptor, and these early efficacy outcomes in scleroderma suggest potential for FT-011 to treat other indications in Certa’s pipeline, including diabetic retinopathy and other forms of chronic kidney disease.

Certa Therapeutics Pty Ltd. is progressing antifibrotic agent FT-011 to phase III trials following positive results in a phase II trial that showed clinically meaningful improvements for more than 60% of patients with scleroderma in 12 weeks. FT-011 targets a previously undrugged G protein-coupled receptor, and these early efficacy outcomes in scleroderma suggest potential for FT-011 to treat other indications in Certa’s pipeline, including diabetic retinopathy and other forms of chronic kidney disease.

Could long non-coding RNAs be the key to developing organ-specific antifibrotic drugs that only mediate their effects in disease-related contexts? That’s the intriguing hypothesis that Haya Therapeutics SA has set out to explore, and its lead program, in heart failure caused by non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, is now in IND-enabling studies. A first clinical trial is pencilled in for late 2024 or early 2025.

SFA Therapeutics Inc. has received FDA clearance of its IND application to investigate SFA-001N in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with or without fibrosis.

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have published preclinical data from a study that aimed to assess the role of gut microbiota-reactive Th17 cells in intestinal fibrosis, which is a significant complication of Crohn’s disease (CD).