Oncternal Therapeutics to Provide Business Update and Report First Quarter 2022 Financial Results

SAN DIEGO, April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONCT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel oncology therapies, today announced that it will report first quarter 2022 financial results after the U.S. financial markets close on Thursday, May 5, 2022. Oncternal’s management will host a webcast at 2:00 p.m. PT (5:00 p.m. ET) to provide a comprehensive business update and discuss the Company’s financial results.

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Oncternal Therapeutics to Provide Business Update and Report First Quarter 2022 Financial Results

Finch Therapeutics Announces Removal of FDA Clinical Hold on CP101 IND

SOMERVILLE, Mass., April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finch Therapeutics Group, Inc. (“Finch” or “Finch Therapeutics”) (Nasdaq: FNCH), a clinical-stage microbiome therapeutics company leveraging its Human-First Discovery® platform to develop a novel class of orally administered biological drugs, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has removed the clinical hold on Finch’s investigational new drug (IND) application for CP101. CP101 is the Company’s investigational orally administered microbiome therapeutic which is in late-stage clinical development for the prevention of recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI). The FDA lifted the clinical hold following a review of information Finch provided related to its SARS-CoV-2 screening procedures and associated informed consent language.

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Finch Therapeutics Announces Removal of FDA Clinical Hold on CP101 IND

HilleVax Announces Pricing of Upsized Initial Public Offering

BOSTON, April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HilleVax, Inc. (Nasdaq: HLVX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing novel vaccines, today announced the pricing of its upsized initial public offering of 11,765,000 shares of common stock at an initial public offering price of $17.00 per share. All of the shares are being offered by HilleVax. The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $200.0 million. The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on April 29, 2022 under the ticker symbol “HLVX.” The offering is expected to close on May 3, 2022, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. In addition, HilleVax has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,764,750 shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions.

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HilleVax Announces Pricing of Upsized Initial Public Offering

New three-year data for Roche’s Evrysdi (risdiplam) show long-term improvements in survival and motor milestones in babies with Type 1 spinal…

Basel, 29 April 2022 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced new three-year data from the FIREFISH study, including one-year data from the open label extension, reinforcing the long-term efficacy and safety of Evrysdi® (risdiplam) in infants with symptomatic Type 1 spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The data showed an estimated 91% of infants (n=58) treated with Evrysdi were alive after three years of treatment. The Evrysdi-treated infants continued to improve or maintain motor functions, including the ability to swallow, sit without support, stand with support and walk while holding on, between two and three years of treatment. Without treatment, children with Type 1 SMA are never able to sit without support. The study also showed overall continued reductions in serious adverse events (SAEs) and hospitalisations over time.

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New three-year data for Roche’s Evrysdi (risdiplam) show long-term improvements in survival and motor milestones in babies with Type 1 spinal...

A New Type of Cell Death Discovered in Fly Guts – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers have uncovered a new type of cell death that occurs in the guts of flies. The process, called erebosis, is believed to play a role in gut metabolism.

Source: RIKEN

A research group led by Sa Kan Yoo at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) has discovered a completely unknown type of cell death that takes place in the guts of the common fruit fly.

The new process, coined erebosis by the researchers is thought to play a role in gut metabolism. The findings necessitate a revision of the conventional concept of cell death, and at the same time, overturn the previously established theory of tissue homeostasis in the gut.

The study was published April 25 in scientific journalPLOS Biology.

Like the skin, cells that make up the intestines are constantly dying and being replaced by new cells. This process, called turnover, helps maintain the balance, or homeostasis, between tissue growth and tissue renewal. The conventional theory for turnover in the intestines is that aging or damaged cells die through a process called apoptosis.

Also called programmed cell death, apoptosis is one of three types of cell death that are currently recognized.

The new research calls this assumption into question, providing evidence for a second type of programmed cell death that could be specific to the intestines.

As is often the case, this discovery occurred by accident. The researchers were studying a fruit fly version of ANCE, an enzyme that helps lower blood pressure. They noticed thatAnceexpression in the fly gut was patchy, and that the cells that contained it had strange characteristics.

We found that Ance labels some weird cells in the fruit fly gut, says Yoo.

But it took a long time for us to figure out that these weird cells were actually dying. They found that the strange cells were dark, lacking nuclear membranes, mitochondria, and cytoskeletons, and sometimes even DNA and other cellular items that are needed for cells to stay alive.

The process was so gradual and unlike the more sudden and explosive cell death seen in apoptosis, that they realized it might be something new.

Because the Ance-positive cells were often near where new cells are born in the gut, they theorized that the new type of cell death is related to turnover in the intestines.

They tentatively named the process erebosis, based on the Greek erebos meaning darkness, because the dying cells looked so dark under the microscope.

To prove erebosis is a new type of cell death, the researchers conducted several tests. First, experimentally stopping apoptosis did not prevent gut homeostasis. This meant that cell turnover in the gut, including cell death, can proceed without apoptosis.

Second, the dying cells did not show any of the molecular markers for apoptosis or the other two types of known cell death. Cells in late-stage erebosis did show a general marker for cell death related to degraded DNA.

Detailed examination of the cells in which erebosis was occurring revealed that they were located near clusters of gut stem cells. This is good evidence erebotic cells are replaced by newly differentiated gut cells during turnover.

Ironically, the enzyme that led to this discovery does not seem to be directly involved in the process, as knocking down or overexpressing Ance did not affect turnover or erebosis. Therefore, the next step is work out the detailed molecular events that allow erebosis and cell turnover in the fly gut.

I feel our results have the potential to be a seminal finding. Personally, this work is the most groundbreaking research I have ever done in my life. says Yoo, We are keenly interested in whether erbosis exists in the human gut as well as in fruit flies.

Author: Masataka Sasabe Source: RIKEN Contact: Masataka Sasabe RIKEN Image: The image is credited to RIKEN

Original Research: Open access. Erebosis, a new cell death mechanism during homeostatic turnover of gut enterocytes by Sa Kan Yoo et al. PLOS Biology

Abstract

Erebosis, a new cell death mechanism during homeostatic turnover of gut enterocytes

Many adult tissues are composed of differentiated cells and stem cells, each working in a coordinated manner to maintain tissue homeostasis during physiological cell turnover. Old differentiated cells are believed to typically die by apoptosis.

Here, we discovered a previously uncharacterized, new phenomenon, which we name erebosis based on the ancient Greek word erebos (complete darkness), in the gut enterocytes of adultDrosophila. Cells that undergo erebosis lose cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, organelles and fluorescent proteins, but accumulate Angiotensin-converting enzyme (Ance).

Their nuclei become flat and occasionally difficult to detect.

Erebotic cells do not have characteristic features of apoptosis, necrosis, or autophagic cell death. Inhibition of apoptosis prevents neither the gut cell turnover nor erebosis.

We hypothesize that erebosis is a cell death mechanism for the enterocyte flux to mediate tissue homeostasis in the gut.

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A New Type of Cell Death Discovered in Fly Guts - Neuroscience News