New drug treats gluten-caused intestinal damage in celiac patients

First Tracks Biotherapeutics’ experimental drug ANB033 reduced symptoms from gluten exposure and showed statistically significant protection against intestinal damage in a small, early-stage trial involving 32 people with celiac disease. Participants received three injections of the drug or placebo, then consumed 6 grams of gluten daily for two weeks. Six percent of patients who received ANB033 needed permitted medication to ease gastrointestinal symptoms, compared with 47% of those given placebo. Researchers are assessing a second group at 12 weeks, with initial results expected early next year.

A review of nine trials involving 537 adults with insomnia found medical cannabis provided little to no clinically meaningful improvement in sleep compared with placebo or an antidepressant, though the evidence was rated very low to low. A separate study following 1,266 people from young adulthood into middle age linked long-term cannabis use to lower sleep quality measured by wrist-worn monitors; participants generally did not report worse sleep themselves.

In a pilot study of 13 people with epilepsy undergoing continuous brain monitoring, an AI platform let patients ask questions about brain activity, request charts and receive alerts through a smartphone app. Researchers analyzed 1,307 messages exchanged over an average of about five days. They said the platform could potentially be applied to other conditions monitored or treated with medical devices.