PAI-1

Serina Therapeutics is saying goodbye to assets it first acquired at the end of 2023 in a reverse merger, clearing away $11.2 million in debt.\n Serina Therapeutics is shedding a subsidiary to start the new year off debt-free. The Alabama-based biotech has sold UniverXome Bioengineering to antiaging company Juvenescence to clear away $11.2 million in debt.Serina formed UniverXome to hold legacy assets from a reverse merger with AgeX Therapeutics. AgeX was a public company that had been struggling for years, warning persistently that it was running out of cash and flirting with the idea of a Serina merger. The pair finally sealed the deal in August 2023.Meanwhile, Juvenescence had previously loaned AgeX tens of millions of dollars to help keep it afloat, with AgeX paying the bulk of it back by issuing shares to Juvenescence. Juvenescence is now the largest holder of Serina’s stock, according to a Dec. 23 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. UniverXome held all of the assets from AgeX and no others, a company spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech in an email, and, after the sale, Serina no longer owns any AgeX assets.“This transaction underscores our commitment to maintaining a focused operational strategy centered on advancing SER-252, our lead candidate for advanced Parkinson’s disease, into clinical development,” interim Serina CEO Steve Ledger said in a Jan. 15  release. “By achieving a debt-free balance sheet, we have strengthened our financial foundation, enabling us to accelerate our patient-driven mission.”Serina raised $10 million in December to help bring SER-252 into a phase 1 trial for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, with Juvenescence providing the funds. The firm\'s most recent timeline involves kicking off that study in the second half of 2025.The move will also allow Serina to focus on developing its synthetic polymer platform in a variety of therapeutic modalities, Ledger said, including small molecules, lipid nanoparticles and antibody-drug conjugates. The platform uses a synthetic, water-soluble and low-viscosity polymer for targeted drug delivery.Juvenescence’s pipeline is largely preclinical, with an oral PAI-1 inhibitor currently in a phase 1 trial in fibrosis.

FRIDAY, Sept. 13, 2024 -- Implementation of opt-out emergency department syphilis screening leads to a dramatic increase in screening and diagnosis, especially among pregnant individuals, according to a study published online Sept. 10 in Open Forum Infectious Diseases . Kimberly A. Stanford, M.D., from University of Chicago, and colleagues examined trends in syphilis screening and diagnosis before and after implementation of an opt-out emergency department syphilis screening intervention in May 2019. The researchers found that syphilis screening increased from 3.6 to 24.4 percent of encounters. Presumed active syphilis infection (PAI) increased 288 percent during the study period, from 161 patients (3.1 percent of those screened) to 624 patients (1.7 percent of those screened). Similarly, the proportion of women with PAI increased from 25.6 to 42.5 percent, despite no change in the proportion of women screened. Following implementation, 23.6 percent of PAI were tested for a urogenital sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the emergency department and 9.0 percent presented with symptoms of an STI by diagnosis code. Screening increased from 5.9 to 49.9 percent of encounters among pregnant people, and syphilis diagnosis increased 750 percent (from two cases to 15). “Opt-out screening will be an important strategy in the effort to address the syphilis epidemic,” the authors write. Abstract/Full Text Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

TUESDAY, July 16, 2024 -- Certain dietary patterns may protect against inflammation and heart disease in adults with type 1 diabetes , according to a study presented during NUTRITION 2024, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, held from June 29 to July 2 in Chicago. Arpita Basu, Ph.D., from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and colleagues used data from participants in the Coronary Artery Calcification in Type 1 Diabetes study (563 participants with T1D; 692 controls) to assess longitudinal associations between healthy dietary patterns with biomarkers of inflammation and atherosclerosis. The researchers found that when adjusting for age, sex, calories, body mass index, follow-up time, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking status, and physical activity, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary scores were inversely associated with homocysteine in adults with and without T1D (percent change for controls: −0.53; T1D: −0.57). There was also an inverse relationship between DASH scores and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in the control group (percent change: −0.99). “There is an urgent need to address dietary quality in adults with type 1 diabetes," Basu said in a statement. "In a clinical setting, assessing dietary intakes using the DASH and Mediterranean dietary checklists could be an effective way to identify gaps and improve intakes." Press Release More Information Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.