Scientists from the Australian National University have discovered the gene mutation responsible for causing psoriasis, and the findings could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment for patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease. “We were able to identify the gene that could be important in enabling this progression from a skin-only condition to a skin-and-joint condition,” lead study author Chelisa Cardinez told BioWorld.

Scientists from the Australian National University have discovered the gene mutation responsible for causing psoriasis, and the findings could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment for patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease. “We were able to identify the gene that could be important in enabling this progression from a skin-only condition to a skin-and-joint condition,” lead study author Chelisa Cardinez told BioWorld.

Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling regulates gene expression in immune and skin cells and plays a critical role in maintaining skin homeostasis.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Arizona presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of a novel BD1-selective BET inhibitor, XL-126, being developed as a potential anti-inflammatory agent.

To Steve Hyman, the manual that clinicians currently use to diagnose mental disorders is an active obstacle to getting a scientific understanding of those disorders. Hyman, who is director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, MIT and Harvard, and a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), listed multiple weaknesses of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), whose diagnoses, he said, are “arbitrary, rigid, life-stage and context-insensitive,” as well as blind to the fact that mental disorders exist along a continuum.

Senisca Ltd., a spinout from the University of Exeter, has raised an additional £3.7 million (US$4.7 million) in funding to support the development of RNA-based senotherapeutics to treat age-related disease.

Merck & Co. Inc. has announced plans to initiate clinical development of a new investigational multi-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine designed to provide broader protection against multiple HPV types.