Avoidance of graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) after a hematopoietic stem cell transplant could depend on certain members of the microbiome. According to a study led by scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (FHCC), while some species of intestinal bacteria repressed the expression of the major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II), others induced it and triggered the immune response that produces GVHD.

Recludix Pharma Inc. has entered into a strategic collaboration with Sanofi SA to develop and commercialize first-in-class oral small-molecule STAT6 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 6) inhibitors for patients with immunological and inflammatory diseases. STAT6 is believed to play a key role in multiple dermatological and respiratory diseases.

Dismissed as undruggable in the early 2000s, Src homology 2 domains are now viable and at the heart of Recludix Pharma Inc.’s new deal with Sanofi SA’s U.S. unit. The two will collaborate on developing and commercializing treatments for immunological and inflammatory diseases. In the near term, Recludix will get $125 million, but long term it could add up to $1.2 billion in milestones. Recludix could also bring in up to double-digit royalties on possible future product sales.

Since its emergence in late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has killed nearly 7 million people. But at the same time, many infections, in particular in children and young adults, are asymptomatic with rapid viral clearance from the body. It remains unclear why many individuals are able to successfully clear infection without major complications while others develop severe disease, even without known risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes.

Now, a new study involving nearly 30,000 individuals has found that variation in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci may underlie processes mediating asymptomatic infection. The findings were reported in the July 19, 2023, online edition of Nature.

Research led by Columbia University investigators has shed light on the immune pathway of the intestinal damage caused in celiac disease after gluten consumption. As reported in the July 14, 2023, issue of Science Immunology, the investigators showed an important role for cytotoxic T cells in addition to gluten-specific CD4+ T cells in the onset of celiac disease symptoms in a range of people with the condition.

A new study on the interleukin 1 (IL-1) pathway and its involvement in systemic inflammation and autoinflammatory diseases has described a mutation of the IL-1 receptor type 1 (IL-1R1) receptor associated with chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO). The variant p.Lys131Glu of this receptor was identified in a patient with CRMO. A peripheral blood mononuclear cell analysis showed an inflammatory event in lymphocytes, especially in monocytes and neutrophils. The research was conducted by a group of scientists at Zhejiang University in China and reported in the July 11, 2023, issue of Immunity.

After CAR T-cell immunotherapy for leukemia, some children have a longer remission because the engineered cells remain active and control or prevent the growth of new tumor cells. A new collaborative study has found that these persistent cells expressed certain genes that could be identified through a transcriptional signature. The finding could explain why the treatment does not work in some patients, and potentially help to improve it, reducing relapses.

Although shares of TG Therapeutics Inc. took a hit on word of positive phase III data in multiple sclerosis (MS) from competitor Genentech, a unit of Roche Holding AG, the results may not end up affecting much the market showdown between the CD20 players.

In brain research, be it basic or clinical, neurons have long hogged the limelight. But at the 2023 European Meeting on Glial Cells in Health and Disease, neurons take a back seat to glia – cell types that have often been described as support cells and treated as an afterthought, but that play critical roles in all aspects of brain function, including information processing.