C4x Discovery Holdings plc has announced further progress in its MALT1 inhibitor program for cancer. Building on anti-cancer activity in a preclinical xenograft study, the company completed a preclinical study demonstrating its MALT1 lead compounds were free of UDP glucuronosyltransferase 1 family, polypeptide A1 (UGT1A1) liability shown by competitor chemistries. The program is continuing to identify a shortlist of preclinical candidates for further development, and a partnering program has been initiated.

Impact Therapeutics Inc. and Eikon Therapeutics...

With age, senescent cells become detrimental to tissues. Mayo Clinic scientists have observed this phenomenon in the lung alveoli, where senescent macrophages accumulated in aging tissue and in early stages of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) driven by the Kras oncogene. “We found that the macrophages were present in the earliest stages of the disease. Strategies targeting these cells for elimination or preventing their accumulation would be worthwhile to test in other conditions (assuming we find they occur),” Darren Baker, a Mayo Clinic senescent cell biologist and senior author of the study, told BioWorld.

Additional early-stage research and drug discovery news in brief, from: Omega Therapeutics.

Aria Pharmaceuticals Inc. has described C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2; MCP-1-R) modulators reported to be useful for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis.