While the liver is mostly known as the core of metabolism, contributing to the storage of nutrients and excretion of toxic substances, there is an increasing interest in how it interacts with the central nervous system through the liver-brain axis. At the 2023 European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) meeting in Vienna, Austria, group leader Kristina Schoonjans and her colleague Hadrien Demagny from the Laboratory of Metabolic Signaling at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, gave talks setting out the context of inter-organ communication in liver disease, adding new findings from their research in the liver-brain axis. Read More
Over the past decade there has been much research into the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a cell therapy to regenerate tissue and treat heart disease. Now, one researcher has narrowed the focus down to treating heart disease not with whole cells, but with mitochondria derived from iPSCs. Gentaro Ikeda, a researcher at the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, has worked on generating extracellular vesicles (EVs) containing mitochondria from pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and administering these to restore the functionality of the myocardium in a porcine model of an infarct. Read More
Researchers from Inipharm Inc. presented preclinical data for INI-822, a small-molecule inhibitor of HSD17B13, being developed for the treatment of liver disease. Read More
At the ongoing European Association for the Study of the Liver meeting, researchers from Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co. Ltd. presented preclinical data on RBD-1016 in two models of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Read More
Nephrodi Therapeutics Inc. has entered an agreement with The McQuade Center for Strategic Research and Development LLC (MSRD), a member of the Otsuka family of pharmaceutical companies, to collaborate on the clinical development of Nephrodi's NDI-5001 for X-linked congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI). NDI-5001 is a kidney-targeted small molecule AMPK activator. Read More
University of Western Australia has disclosed 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) analogues acting as dopamine transporter (DAT) and/or norepinephrine transporter (NET) and/or serotonin transporter (SERT) modulators reported to be useful for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Read More
Benobio Co. Ltd. has synthesized novel quinizarin derivatives acting as bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) protein inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Read More
The family of 32 known RNA alphaviruses are present globally, are transmitted by mosquitos, and can cause human disease most commonly arthritogenic or encephalitic in presentation, the latter of which has a fatality rate as high as 35% to 75% depending on host co-morbidities. Previous studies have demonstrated antibody-mediated protection against specific types of alphavirus infections, but broad-spectrum protection against multiple alphavirus has only been reported recently. Even more, the vaccine-mediated elicitation of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) has yet to be demonstrated until now. Read More
Researchers at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université De Picardie Jules Verne and Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC) have identified lipid anionic oligosaccharides acting as microtubule-associated protein tau (PHF-tau; MAPT) aggregation inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Read More
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has divulged proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) comprising cereblon (CRBN) ligands coupled to a tyrosine-protein kinase Lck targeting moiety via a linker acting as Lck degradation inducers reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer and immunological disorders. Read More
Researchers from Westlake Therapeutics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. have presented the discovery and preclinical evaluation of a novel erythrocyte-anti-PD-1 antibody conjugate, WTX-212, being developed for the treatment of cancer. Read More
Arvinas Operations Inc. and Genentech Inc. have described proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) compounds comprising a Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) E3 ubiquitin ligase binding moiety coupled to a probable global transcription activator SNF2L2 (SMARCA2; BAF190B; SNF2-α) targeting moiety through a linker reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, including non-small-cell lung cancer. Read More
