For individuals who develop an unexpected psychosis, there is something to be said for testing them for autoimmune antibodies. And something against. At the 36th Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) this week, the topic was worth a controversy session, where speakers presented the pros and cons of the approach. Currently used tests have a specificity of 99%. But as Ester Coutinho, consultant neurologist at the University of Coimbra, pointed out, the validity of diagnostic tests depends on the prevalence of the disorder one is looking for as well. Coutinho estimated that autoimmune psychoses account for 1% of psychoses overall.

Synthetic, multi-epitope peptide vaccines are becoming an attractive universal influenza vaccine strategy. Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics LLC has created LHNVD-105, an influenza vaccine candidate consisting of unconjugated multi-epitope influenza peptides.

Atomwise Inc. has nominated a development candidate focused on TYK2 inhibition, discovered by leveraging its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery platform, Atomnet.

Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibition is a provenly effective strategy for the treatment of B-cell malignancies with several compounds approved such as ibrutinib, acalabrutinib or zanubrutinib. BTK also plays a central role in immunity and has thus emerged as a potential therapeutic target in autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.

The calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus is an immunosuppressive drug frequently used to prevent transplant rejection in solid organ transplant patients. Tacrolimus acts by suppressing T-cell activity within and around the transplanted organ. However, this drug also inhibits T-cell function in the skin, contributing to a high incidence of skin cancer among transplant recipients.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), has awarded up to $37 million in funding to the Thymus Rejuvenation project, led by Thymmune Therapeutics Inc.

Gro Biosciences Inc. has presented successful proof-of-concept results in two preclinical programs for autoimmune disease and immunogenicity. The company’s genomically recoded organism (GRO) platform enables precise placement of non-standard amino acids (NSAAs) within a protein.