Drugs

Antibacterial (5)
Antibiotic (43)
Antifungal (1)
Antimalarial (3)
Antimicrobial (31)
Drug (217)
Morphine (12)
Pill (12)

Synopsis: Pharma: Pharma generale: Drugs:

#Antibiotics: Light-sensitive drugs to tackle hardy bugs The voices warning of the demise of our antibiotic defences are getting louder.

With common pathogens such as E coli and the pneumonia bug K. pneumoniae developing resistance to our antibiotics of last resort, leading pharmacologists, clinicians and epidemiologists say we risk being cast back to a time

when even routine surgery put Victorians at risk of fatal infection. It's no mystery

Complacent over-prescription of antibiotics by doctors, and their reckless, profligate use in livestock rearing, has provided ample opportunity for resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria to proliferate through natural selection.

An imminent and widespread outbreak of responsible antibiotic use seems unlikely. The financial incentive that usually drives private sector drug development is weakened by the knowledge that more profitable all-purpose antibiotics become obsolete more quickly because of the likely faster emergence of resistance.

Researchers in The netherlands are exploring a novel way forward. What if antibiotics could be deactivated after use

so that they no longer accumulate in the environment where they encourage the emergence of resistant bugs?

A team at the University of Groningen has demonstrated a way to switch off antibiotic agents after just a few hours using warmth or sunlight.

The basic concept is to equip drug molecules with chemical components that change shape in response to heat or light.

Many drugs work by sticking to and deactivating particular enzyme molecules in the body, disabling their function.

Antibiotics typically work by disrupting functions that are essential to the survival of bacterial cells.

And the way a drug binds to its target usually depends on it having a shape that fits rather precisely into a"slot#on the target enzyme.

So if a drug changes shape it might no longer work. Light-switchable drugs have been explored in other fields such as cancer therapy,

but not for antibiotics. Organic chemist Ben Feringa at Groningen and his co-workers used an existing light-switchable unit called azobenzene,

which consists of two benzene molecules joined together by two nitrogen atoms linked by a double chemical bond.

Feringa and colleagues substituted the azobenzene switch for a similar chemical grouping within several variants of an antibacterial molecule called a quinolone,

which is all but useless as an antibiotic. Not only could this innovation prevent accumulation of active antibiotics in the environment,

but it might also help to reduce side effects. One of these comes from their indiscriminate nature:

Drugs equipped with activation switches could be administered orally and then turned on with light once they reach the part of the body (the throat

Switching on drugs with ultraviolet light is not ideal in practice because it can have harmful effects.

#ACTINOGEN#Uncovering a hidden source of new antibiotics In recent years, the emergence of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria has created a major health threat, for example through hospital-acquired infections from drug

-resistant'superbugs'such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and the rapidly emerging multi-drug resistant Gram negative hospital infections.

such as new strains of tuberculosis against which existing drugs are powerless. It was to meet the unaddressed need for new antibiotics that the ACTINOGEN research project began in 2005

supported by funding provided under the European union's 6th Research Framework Programme (FP6. The aim was to discover

whether genetic techniques could be used to create new antibiotics from bacteria commonly found in garden soil.

Known as streptomycetes, these bacteria were recognised already as a source of antibiotics. But a turning point came in 2002,

It was known that the bacterium produced four different antibiotics but the genome sequence revealed the potential for around 20.

The known antibiotics represented only 20%of the possible total. The genetic coding for production of the other 80%lay in'cryptic pathways,

or whether it could be used to trigger the production of new antibiotic compounds.''Meanwhile, the genomes of other streptomycete species had been sequenced

''If you wanted to discover new antibiotics, this had enormous implications, 'says Professor Dyson. During the project, ACTINOGEN scientists successfully triggered the creation of new antibiotics using the cryptic pathways of a number of streptomycete species,

thus confirming that here indeed was a rich seam of potential new drug discovery. With thousands of streptomycete species already known to science,

and many more still undiscovered in nature, the potential to generate huge numbers of new antibiotics was clear.

An equally important part of the project concerned the genetic engineering of a species of streptomycete which could be used as a kind of'all-purpose'production facility,

able to synthesise the new antibiotics in sufficient quantity. Known as a'generic Superhost',it allows the genetic coding for any desired antibiotic to be taken from its original bacterial host,

where the production process may be difficult and slow, and implanted in the Superhost, which then produces the antibiotic in much greater quantity than is otherwise possible.

In the past, says Professor Dyson, achieving the necessary level of production took around 10 years. The ACTINOGEN Superhost allows the same result to be achieved within six months to one year.

clearly offer the prospect of a revolution in antibiotic production opening up the possibility of a range of potential new drugs, with important benefits not only for human health,

and scan for infection for exampleâ##synthetic gene circuits are especially useful for detecting things like contaminants pesticides heavy metals and counterfeit drugs.##

bandages that signal when a wound is infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria; or smart clothing that tells a runner she s getting dehydrated.##

#Gel fights breast cancer with fewer side effects A tamoxifen gel applied to the breast may work as well as a pill form of the drug to slow the growth of cancer cells.

Because the drug is absorbed through the skin directly into breast tissue, less of it enters the blood,

and radiation despite the drug effectiveness to prevent DCIS recurrence and to lower the risk of future breast cancer. elivering the drug though a gel,

if proven effective in larger trials, could potentially replace oral tamoxifen for breast cancer prevention and DCIS and encourage many more women to take it,

effective drug concentrations are required in the breast. For these women, high circulating drug levels only cause collateral damage.

The gel minimized exposure to the rest of the body and concentrated the drug in the breast where it is needed. here was very little drug in the bloodstream,

which should avoid potential blood clots as well as an elevated risk for uterine cancer. Women who have completed surgery

or took the oral drug, but the blood levels of 4-OHT were more than five times lower in those who used the gel.

and half the oral drug, which they took daily. The gel application may also be more effective for some women.

These women may not receive full benefits from the pill. The National Cancer Institute of the National institutes of health and BHR Pharma, LLC supported the research

and alleviate pain with electronics instead of drugs. e need to make these devices as small as possible to more easily implant them deep in the body

and drug delivery systems to apply medicines directly to affected areas, Poon says. The work creates the potential to develop lectroceuticaltreatments as alternatives to drug therapies,

says William Newsome, professor of neurobiology and director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute. Newsome, who was involved not in Poon experiments

The investigators are currently designing a study to correlate pharmacokineticshe time course of drug metabolismith genotype.

In coming decades such molecular motors might find uses in drug delivery manufacturing and chemical processing.

It's an odorless tasteless substance that's classified as a harmless food additive by the US Food and Drug Administration.

whether it identifying the pills left in the back of the medicine cabinet or figuring out whether the fruit at the farmer market is ripe.

if a drink has been spiked with drugs. However, you might have to pay, especially for specific professional use-cases.

because the path from a genetic-disease marker to a profitable drug has not been straight#forward.

Using CRISPR to generate tumors should allow scientists to more rapidly study how different genetic mutations interact to produce cancers as well as the effects of potential drugs on tumors with a specific genetic profile.

They initially sought to develop nanoparticles that could be used to deliver drugs to cancer cells. Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT.

But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery, since UV LIGHT can be damaging to tissue and cells,

and approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a food additive, and polylactic acid, a biodegradable plastic used in compostable cups and glassware.

The study also suggests the broader potential for adapting nanoscale drug-delivery techniques developed for use in environmental remediation. hat we can apply some of the highly sophisticated,

And many drugs work by targeting specific membrane proteins.""Currently, scientists only know the structure of a small handful of membrane proteins.

Our research paves the way to understand the structure of the thousands of different types of membrane proteins to allow the development of many new drugs

which there are no effective antibiotics, says Timothy Lu, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering. hese bacteriophages are designed in a way that relatively modular.

Customizable virusesthe Food and Drug Administration has approved a handful of bacteriophages for treating food products, but efforts to harness them for medical use have been hampered

which there are few new antibiotics. This group also includes microbes that can cause respiratory, urinary,

One advantage of the engineered phages is that unlike many antibiotics, they are very specific in their targets. ntibiotics can kill off a lot of the good flora in your gut,

"For some drugs, having the correct'handedness'is essential as you need the right key in the lock to make the drugs work.

#New Polymer Gel Could Create Edible Devices for Ultra-Long Drug Delivery A team of scientists has developed a polymer gel that could allow for the development of long-acting devices that reside in the stomach,

including orally delivered capsules that can release drugs over a number of days, weeks, or potentially months following a single administration.

including prolonged drug delivery, electronic monitoring, and weight-loss intervention. However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration.

including orally delivered capsules that can release drugs over a number of days, weeks, or potentially months following a single administration.

or extended-release drug-delivery systems that could last for weeks or months after a single administration. his delivery system provides a flexible and smooth external covering that slowly disintegrates,

which could release drugs or small devices for monitoring and imaging the GI TRACT, says Edith Mathiowitz,

the authors say they are excited for the drug-delivery applications of this technology. With further work in adjusting the polymer composition or the design of the system

they say that they could tailor devices to release drugs over a specific timeframe of up to weeks or months at a time.

MIT is negotiating an exclusive license agreement with Lyndra, an early-stage biotechnology company developing novel oral drug-delivery systems,

Ie not seen previously enabling patients to swallow a single pill that can then act for whatever length of time is desired,

In a March 2015 commentary piece in Nature, Traverso and Langer wrote that the GI TRACT is an area rife with opportunity for prolonged drug delivery in tackling this global health problem.

Developed to be swallowed just like a large pill (it is a bit bigger than a small coin),

as a drug delivery system, as well. Chen and Wang have conducted demonstrations to show the great potential of combining 3d printing with nanoengineering, installing polydiacetylene (PDA) nanoparticles within the microfish.

while they were initially designing photosensitive polymers for drug delivery applications. Once they came up with a polymer that responded to UV LIGHT,

meaning more absorption occurs on small nanoparticles. his is an important consideration for drug delivery

because it could explain what happens with nanoparticles with high drug encapsulation and extensive burst release. arnessing nanoparticles in Africatheresa Dankovich uses nanotechnology to purify drinking water in Africa.

or drugs inside a man-made biodegradable nanoparticle rapperthat patients inhale could penetrate the mucus barrier

and for drug testing, as artificial tissue grown on them would respond realistically. And they could help scientists learn more about how cells in the body respond to different stimuli

on the other hand, is a relatively noninvasive device that is simply swallowed like a large pill and then remotely guided around inside the patient's stomach by a doctor.

Advances in bioengineering had allowed scientists to understand the complex processes within the poppy plant that convert sugar to morphine,

the way poppy crops are--allowing millions of people around the world who do not have sufficient access to painkilling drugs to get the medications they need.

One was that scientists hadn't figured out all of the steps involved in making morphine from glucose within the poppy plant--in particular

which is a drug and a major component in Vicodin. Smolke said the purpose of producing hydrocodone was to show that yeast can be engineered to create a compound that a plant doesn't have the cellular machinery to produce.

praised the researchers for stopping short of producing heroin and morphine, in their experiments. While noting that the work will need still refinement before it becomes a public health threat,

he marveled at how quickly developments had been unfolding in bioengineering--for morphine synthesis and other applications that would require policymakers to sit down with scientists

and get the drugs to the damaged vessels, explained Christian Kastrup, a biomedical engineer at the University of British columbia. t similar to when a grenade goes off

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#Milestone single-biomolecule imaging technique may advance drug design Abstract: The first nanometer resolved image of individual tobacco mosaic virions shows the potential of low energy electron holography for imaging biomolecules at a single particle level--a milestone in structural biology and a potential new tool

for drug design. Knowing the detailed shape of biomolecules such as proteins is essential for biological studies and drug discovery.

Modern structural biology relies on techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to discover the tiny structural details of biomolecules.

"Longchamp noted the technique would also open the door for"rational drug design,"an inventive process of finding new medications based on the knowledge of a biological target.

Better knowledge about the individual structures of those target proteins can help scientists develop more effective drugs.

leading to the rapid synthesis of drug derivatives for treating Parkinson's disease. Nagoya, Japan-Yutaro Saito, Yasutomo Segawa and Professor Kenichiro Itami at the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (ITBM

which is an anticholinergic drug used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.''Parachuting'boron onto the para-position of a benzene ring by a bulky iridium catalyst.

This may relate to suboptimal drug deposition achieved with conventional nasal sprays, inter-individual differences in nasal physiology and a poor understanding of how intranasal OT is delivered to the brain in humans.

#Future antibiotic-making kit for amateurs? Kit could one day Be led by widely available Professor Jeffrey Bode of the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules at Nagoya University in Japan,

and safely to discover novel antibiotics. Microorganisms can synthesise mixtures of complex organic molecules, such as antibiotics, from simple organic building blocks by fermentation.

Inspired by this approach, Professor Bode and his colleagues found that they could make large mixtures of biologically active compounds from a few chemical ingredients in just a few hours,

and identify new antibacterial or antifungal molecules to treat plant diseases.""By combining a handful of molecules in a variety of ways,

including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Scientists with the U s. Department of energy (DOE)' s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have created a hybrid system of semiconducting nanowires and bacteria

The yields of target chemical molecules produced from the acetate were also encouraging--as high as 26-percent for butanol, a fuel comparable to gasoline, 25-percent for amorphadiene, a precursor to the antimaleria drug artemisinin,

we are talking about 88 million pills; an ecological damage is avoided with the new process."

it is possible that EVLP could be used to deliver drugs before the lung is implanted so that the patient's immune system does not recognise the transplanted organ as harmful."

which there are no effective antibiotics, says Timothy Lu, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biological engineering.

Arraythe Food and Drug Administration has approved a handful of bacteriophages for treating food products, but efforts to harness them for medical use have been hampered

so that simplifies that workflow in the lab."Arrayarrayone advantage of the engineered phages is that unlike many antibiotics,

"Antibiotics can kill off a lot of the good flora in your gut, "Lu says.""We aim to create effective and narrow-spectrum methods for targeting pathogens."

including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Scientists with the U s. Department of energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have created a hybrid system of semiconducting nanowires and bacteria that mimics

a fuel comparable to gasoline, 25-percent for amorphadiene, a precursor to the antimaleria drug artemisinin,

and drug screening. However, many of these microfluidic devices operate at only a few hundred cells per second,

Even powerful drugs to block the immune attack can entirely stop it. In a famous 1984 case, a California newborn known as aby Faereceived a baboon heart.

Mohiuddin says the pig heart gave out only when he decided to stop giving the baboon the novel immune-blocking drugs he had used. e believe it could have gone on forever,

the structures could help scientists screen drugs for toxicity and model normal and diseased kidney function,

They developed a new surface coating for medical devices using materials already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA.

And many drugs work by targeting specific membrane proteins.""Currently, scientists only know the structure of a small handful of membrane proteins.

Our research paves the way to understand the structure of the thousands of different types of membrane proteins to allow the development of many new drugs

-or right-handed form may have a multitude of practical applications, potentially leading to new and improved drugs, diagnosis methods, and pesticides.

The breakthrough could be important in developing effective molecules for use in a wide range of industries everything from the development of safer new drugs and disease diagnosis to less toxic pesticides.

for instance with chiral drugs. Presently, more than 50 per cent of all drugs produced are active in only one of their two handed forms.

The chemistry of life Dr Ivan Powis, Professor of Chemical Physics in the University School of Chemistry, who led the research,

for instance the well-known malformation of the limbs of infants of pregnant women taking the Thalidomide drug to relieve morning sickness that occurred around 1960.

In addition to the development of effective new drugs and diagnosis methods for diseases including cancer, it could potentially lead to new reenpesticides using pheromones tailored specifically to attract pollinators

They initially sought to develop nanoparticles that could be used to deliver drugs to cancer cells. Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT.

But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery, since UV LIGHT can be damaging to tissue and cells,

and approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a food additive, and polylactic acid, a biodegradable plastic used in compostable cups and glassware.

The study also suggests the broader potential for adapting nanoscale drug-delivery techniques developed for use in environmental remediation. hat we can apply some of the highly sophisticated,

the antimalarial garment can be worn during the day to provide extra protection and does not dissipate like skin-based repellants.

along with other researchers developed nanoscale particles that introduce silver antimicrobial potency to a biocompatible lignin core.

People have been interested in using silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial purposes, but there are lingering concerns about their environmental impact due to the long-term effects of the used metal nanoparticles released in the environment.

and environmentally responsible method to make effective antimicrobials with biomaterial cores. Velev, INVISTA Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at NC State.

We may include less of the antimicrobial ingredient without losing effectiveness while at the same time using an inexpensive technique that has a lower environmental burden.

They initially sought to develop nanoparticles that could be used to deliver drugs to cancer cells. Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT.

But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery, since UV LIGHT can be damaging to tissue and cells,

and approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a food additive, and polylactic acid, a biodegradable plastic used in compostable cups and glassware.

The study also suggests the broader potential for adapting nanoscale drug-delivery techniques developed for use in environmental remediation. hat we can apply some of the highly sophisticated,

#'Home-brewed morphine'made possible Scientists have figured out how to brew morphine using the same kit used to make beer at home.

They have modified genetically yeast to perform the complicated chemistry needed to convert sugar to morphine.

raise promise for medicine but also concerns about"home-brewed"illegal drugs. Experts have called for tight control of organisms genetically modified to produce narcotics.

But by borrowing DNA from plants, scientists have been genetically engineering yeasts that can perform each of the steps needed to convert sugar into morphine.

and the scientists say it should now be possible to put all the steps together and"brew"morphine.

and have the yeast do all the chemical steps required downstream to make your target therapeutic drug."

"Morphine plays a vital role in pain relief in many hospitals, but it requires a poppy harvest to manufacture.

Brewed morphine could, eventually, be easier to produce. It could also allow scientists to tweak each of the steps to develop new types of painkiller.

The broad concept of using microscopic organisms to make drugs is not new in medicine.

and basic skills in fermentation would be able to grow morphine producing yeast using a a home-brew kit for beer-making,

which aims to bring new drugs and medical devices to patients. Cathy Yelf, of the Macular Society, said:"

and to detect drug resistance in infectious diseases. Bringing techniques and testing that is normally confined to a laboratory or hospital, out into the field,

and other bacteria antibiotic resistance that is about 14,000 base pairs long. For 5, 000 base-pair or shorter segments,

and potentially decide on a drug choice based on some of the genetic testing copy number variations of certain genes that you would find in the sample taken from the patient. he technology also removes barriers to testing that cities

and our aging population. ext up the researchers plan to test their device in the field to detect the presence of malaria-related drug resistance.

#Latest drug technology could help reduce cost of carbon capture A novel class of materials that enable a safer cheaper

and received $200 million from the Gates Foundation, is making RTS, S available as a nonprofit drug.

and Drug Administration approval next year to expand its use to men. n the U s,

and environmentally benign method to combat bacteria by engineering nanoscale particles that add the antimicrobial potency of silver to a core of lignin,

greener and safer nanotechnology and could lead to enhanced efficiency of antimicrobial products used in agriculture and personal care.

"People have been interested in using silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial purposes, but there are lingering concerns about their environmental impact due to the long-term effects of the used metal nanoparticles released in the environment,

and environmentally responsible method to make effective antimicrobials with biomaterial cores.""The researchers used the nanoparticles to attack E coli, a bacterium that causes food poisoning;

"We may include less of the antimicrobial ingredient without losing effectiveness while at the same time using an inexpensive technique that has a lower environmental burden.

and environmentally benign method to combat bacteria by engineering nanoscale particles that add the antimicrobial potency of silver to a core of lignin,

greener and safer nanotechnology and could lead to enhanced efficiency of antimicrobial products used in agriculture and personal care.

"People have been interested in using silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial purposes, but there are lingering concerns about their environmental impact due to the long-term effects of the used metal nanoparticles released in the environment,

and environmentally responsible method to make effective antimicrobials with biomaterial cores.""The researchers used the nanoparticles to attack E coli, a bacterium that causes food poisoning;

"We may include less of the antimicrobial ingredient without losing effectiveness while at the same time using an inexpensive technique that has a lower environmental burden.

and carry payloads of pharmaceutical drugs to targeted tissues. Unlike other methods of making carbon nanoparticles-which require expensive equipment

We use spectroscopy to confirm the formulation as well as visualize the delivery of the particles and drug molecules."

"The team found that the nanoparticles did not release the drug payload at room temperature, but at body temperature began to release the anticancer drug.

The researchers also determined which topical applications penetrated the skin to a desired depth. In further experiments, the researchers found they could alter the infusion of the particles into melanoma cells by adjusting the polymer coatings.

"This is a versatile platform to carry a multitude of drugs-for melanoma, for other kinds of cancers and for other diseases,

You can load it with two drugs, or three, or four, so you can do multidrug therapy with the same particles.""

and also we can tune them to release the drugs in the presence of the cellular environment.

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