Current therapeutic options for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) are not effective for all patient subsets and, due to their lack of specificity, often provoke toxicity and off-target effects. CD8+ T cells are essential in the fight against viruses but in chronically HBV-infected patients, these cells become unproductive and difficult to detect. At the recent Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), Matteo Iannacone, professor of Pathology and Immunology from IRCCS San Raffaele in Milano, presented a novel interleukin 2 (IL-2)-based immunotherapy approach that used a modular cis-targeting platform to tackle HBV infection specifically in patients suffering from chronic viral infection. Read More
TFF Pharmaceuticals Inc. has been awarded a Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to continue development of a novel, mucosal, multivariant influenza vaccine using the company’s thin film freezing (TFF) technology. Read More
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a hormone that both acts as a satiety signal in response to food intake and also stimulates insulin release and inhibits glucagon secretion in response to food ingestion. Researchers at Terns Pharmaceuticals Inc. have presented preclinical data on TERN-601, a GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist, in humanized GLP-1R (hGLP-1R) mouse models. Read More
Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s wholly owned subsidiary DMK Pharmaceuticals Corp. has been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the development of a novel bifunctional small molecule for the treatment of alcohol use disorder. Read More
Merck & Co. Inc. has reported the development of a novel monobactam for use in combination with its class A/C β-lactamase inhibitor (BIL) relebactam (MK-7655) in order to achieve the broadest activity against multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative pathogens that express a variety of β-lactamases. The in vitro efficacy of the combination of the monobactam – MSD-045934942 – against a panel of MDR and non-MDR gram-negative bacteria was evaluated using in vitro broth microdilution testing. Read More
Benitec Biopharma Inc. has received FDA clearance of its IND application for BB-301, its silence and replace gene therapy for the treatment of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD)-related dysphagia. Read More
Astrazeneca AB has synthesized pyraolo-and triazolo-azinone compounds acting as receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1; RIP-1) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of neurological disorders. Read More
Nextgen Bioscience Co. Ltd. has identified ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase family member 2 (ENPP2; autotaxin) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis, cardiovascular, inflammatory, respiratory, metabolic, eye and renal disorders, among others. Read More
Osteosarcomas (OS) are the most common malignant bone tumor. The disease originates within the fastest growing areas of the long bones of children and young adults, where the histologic hallmark of OS is malignant bone formation (osteoid). Improvements in treatments have proven difficult to date with metastatic OS remaining a bleak prognosis routinely leading to lung metastases to ultimately cause death. Read More
CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. has announced clinical trial approval by China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for the antibody drug JMT-203, being developed by the company’s Shanghai JMT-Bio Technology Co. Ltd. subsidiary for cancer cachexia. Read More
Researchers at Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. Ltd. and Medshine Discovery Inc. have divulged novel non-fluorinated quinolones reported to be useful for the treatment of acne, bacterial infections and inflammatory disorders. Read More
Cyclophilins are a group of proteins involved in cell metabolism and homeostasis. One of the members, CypD, is located in mitochondria and plays an important role as a regulator of mitochondrial permeability transition (mPT) and necrotic cell death resulting in persistent mPT opening that, in turn, leads to hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). Read More
Additional early-stage research and drug discovery news in brief, from: Artelo Biosciences, Lantern Pharma, Marker Therapeutics, Panbela Therapeutics, Point Biopharma Global. Read More
