Investigators from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College presented data from a study that investigated the regulatory mechanisms of intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) death and intestinal inflammation.

Holliston, Mass.-based Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology Inc. (HART) is seeking patent protection for synthetic structural support devices for use in esophageal tissue regeneration, in which the synthetic structural supports have been seeded with cells (e.g., mesenchymal stem cells) to form a cellular sheath on the supports’ outer surfaces.

Infection with Helicobacter pylori is a risk factor for the development of gastric cancer. H. pylori initiates a chronic inflammatory response that can lead to the production of excessive radical oxygen species (ROS), which in turn can activate oncogenic signaling pathways leading to gastric cancer development. SUMOylation is a post-translational modification mechanism in cells in response to reactions to stress. A team at The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University hence set out to study the role of SUMO-activating enzyme subunit 1 (SAE1) in gastric cancer, since it is a SUMO-activating effector protein.

Less than a month after the U.S. FDA approved Sanofi SA and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s bestseller Dupixent (dupilumab) for treating eosinophilic esophagitis in children ages 1 to 11, the agency has approved Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Eohilia (budesonide oral suspension) for the same indication but for an older group.

Seeking to rejuvenate itself after recent disappointments, Gilead Sciences Inc. proposes to bolster its liver portfolio by taking over Cymabay Therapeutics Inc. for $32.50 per share in cash, a total equity value of $4.3 billion. The arrangement brings aboard seladelpar for second-line primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) including pruritis (itch), which is under priority review by the U.S. FDA, with a decision due this year.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is characterized by accumulation of triglycerides (TGs) in liver hepatocytes, and which can progress into chronic liver disease or even hepatocellular carcinoma.

The approval by the U.S. FDA in October of Pfizer Inc.’s Velsipity (etrasimod), an oral sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulator for moderately-to-severely active ulcerative colitis, brought renewed attention to the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) landscape, where the hunt goes on for new alternatives. Among the promising soldiers in the march is Paris-based Abivax SA, which closed its IPO the same month.

Attovia Therapeutics Inc. has announced the closing of the $30 million second tranche of its $60 million series A financing.

As the company’s phase II study in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis continues, Pliant Therapeutics Inc.’s investors looked hard at 12-week interim data from the 320-mg dose group of Integris-PSC, a multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II trial testing bexotegrast in primary sclerosing cholangitis and suspected moderate to severe liver fibrosis.