#Researchers develop a new means of killing harmful bacteria The global rise in antibiotic resistance is a growing threat to public health,
Christine Daniloff and Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT (plasmid illustration courtesy of the researchers) What more, efforts to develop new antibiotics are not keeping pace with this growth in microbial resistance, resulting in a pressing need
Unlike traditional broad-spectrum antibiotics, these viruses target specific bacteria without harming the body normal microflora.
Overview of antibacterial phagemid construction. Phagemid plasmids are transformed first into a production strain harboring a helper plasmid.
but instead increased the effectiveness of antibiotics when delivered at the same time. To build on this earlier work,
Collins says. e systematically tested different antimicrobial peptides and bacterial toxins, and demonstrated that when you combine a number of these within the phagemids,
in a similar way to the broad-spectrum antibiotics used today. But they are more likely to be used in conjunction with rapid diagnostic tools, currently in development,
The paper demonstrates that using synthetic biology to modify a gene in a phage to make it more toxic to a pathogen can lead to more effective antimicrobial particles than classical approaches,
The researchers have created an improved form of phage therapy that may become the antibiotics of the future,
if and how lifestyle factors and medications can modify their risk of bowel cancer, Dr Win said. ur data is the first to confirm the finding of a previous international randomised clinical trial that found a protective effect of aspirin on bowel cancer for these high-risk people.
Human calcineurin is already a proven target for drugs treating other illnesses including adult rheumatoid arthritis and lupus,
John Laporte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious diseases. s drug resistance is a major problem for malaria control and eradication,
it is critical that that we continue to develop new antimalarials that act against previously unexploited targets in the parasite to keep priming the drug pipeline.
said lead author Aditya Paul, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard Chan School. n addition to a possible drug target,
The new findings could serve as a basis for designing moveable components with especially natural mobile properties, for example for applications in robots.
The fifth column is implanted an bit of genetic code that sits idle until a certain drug enters the cell.
Gene therapy is not a drug, but a transfer of human genes. Gene therapy refers to the incorporation of new DNA into cells,
CEO of Nightstarx. e have been granted orphan drug designation for the product in the United states and Europe,
and neutralize Marburg virushich has a mortality rate of up to 90%ere developed through an academic-industrial partnership including TSRI, Integrated Biotherapeutics, Mapp Biopharmaceutical and Emergent biosolutions.
In the new study, TSRI researchers designed proteins which elicited new antibodies developed at Emergent biosolutions.
or treatments for each of the different viruses in this family necessitates intelligent design of immunogens (antibody-inducing molecules).
and evaluate the antibodies point the way forward, added Jody Berry, the former Director of Pipeline Research of Emergent biosolutions,
current director of pipeline research of Emergent biosolutions. here are multiple filoviruses that threaten our communities, front line medical workers and defense personnel,
a drug that affects the genetic material of cells and inhibits cell division when administered in high doses,
then by using special methods of drug delivery you can program the death of the affected cells Vasily Studitsky concluded,
adding that the process of development and testing of such drugs, of course, requires considerable time n
Antiviral targets Antiviral drugs that target polymerase molecules are based in part on knowing their structure.
which will form the basis for understanding the L protein of the other viruses in the order. he Ebola protein will look the same,
nd while no one has shown yet that it is an antimicrobial protein, there are multiple lines of evidence that suggest it is.
The larger insight from the study could aid in the design of the next generation of antibiotics
which are needed urgently as many pathogens have become resistant to the antibiotics now most commonly used to treat infection e
the antimalarial garment can be worn during the day to provide extra protection and does not dissipate like skin-based repellants.
and to resist being killed by an antimicrobial molecule. The researchers demonstrated that their set of genetic tools
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.
limiting the risk to the environment. eople 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,
INVISTA Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at NC State and the paper corresponding author. e show here an inexpensive and environmentally responsible method to make effective antimicrobials with biomaterial cores. he researchers used the nanoparticles
Alexander Richter, the paper first author and an NC State Ph d. candidate says that the particles could be the basis for reduced risk pesticide products with reduced cost
Richter said. e 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 a drug-screening tool to make pregnancies safer. In experiments to be published Tuesday, July 14, in the journal Nature Communications,
a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular disease and a professor of medical genetics and cellular and molecular pharmacology at UC San francisco. his technology could help us quickly screen for drugs likely to generate cardiac birth defects,
which drugs are dangerous during pregnancy. Screening for drug toxicity To test the potential of the system as a drug-screening tool,
the researchers exposed the differentiating cells to thalidomide, a drug known to cause severe birth defects.
They found that at normal therapeutic doses the drug led to abnormal development of microchambers, including decreased size,
problems with muscle contraction and lower beat rates compared with heart tissue that had not been exposed to thalidomide. e chose drug cardiac developmental toxicity screening to demonstrate a clinically relevant application of the cardiac microchambers,
as many as 280,000 pregnant women are exposed to drugs with evidence of potential fetal risk. The most commonly reported birth defects involve the heart,
and the potential for generating cardiac defects is of utmost concern in determining drug safety during pregnancy.
and other UC Berkeley researchers publicly debuted a system of beating human heart cells on a chip that could be used to screen for drug toxicity.
Phd, made a significant discovery on how HIV escapes the body antiviral responses. The team uncovered how an HIV viral protein known as Vpu tricks the immune system by using its own regulatory process to evade the host first line of defence.
The study goal was to determine how HIV manages to compromise antiviral responses in the initial period of infection
and antiviral drugs, represent the primary barrier to a cure. n important component in this process is a group of proteins collectively called type 1 Interferons,
The Interferon then triggers a large array of defence mechanisms in nearby cells, creating an antiviral state that prevents the dissemination and
HIV uses the viral protein Vpu to counteract BST2 antiviral activity. ith this study, we uncovered a unique mechanism
whereby HIV exploits the regulatory process between BST2 and ILT7 to limit the body antiviral response,
all the while counteracting its direct antiviral activity on HIV production. he hope for a definitive cure
a team of leading Canadian researchers working towards an HIV cure. ur findings can provide tools to enhance antiviral responses during the early stages of infection.
while also allowing pdcs to trigger effective antiviral responses. We believe that such interventions during primary infection have the potential to limit the establishment and complexity of viral reservoirs,
#Futuristic brain probe allows for wireless control of neurons Scientists used soft materials to create a brain implant a tenth the width of a human hair that can wirelessly control neurons with lights and drugs.
minimally invasive device for controlling brain cells with drugs and lighta study showed that scientists can wirelessly determine the path a mouse walks with a press of a button.
Typically, scientists who study these circuits have to choose between injecting drugs through bulky metal tubes
and can simultaneously deliver drugs and lights. e used powerful nanomanufacturing strategies to fabricate an implant that lets us penetrate deep inside the brain with minimal damage,
or cannulas, scientists typically use to inject drugs. When the scientists compared the implant with a typical cannula they found that the implant damaged
The scientists tested the device drug delivery potential by surgically placing it into the brains of mice.
In other experiments, they made mice walk in circles by injecting a drug that mimics morphine into the ventral tegmental area (VTA
when the scientists directed the device to simultaneously inject a drug that blocks neuronal communication.
It has room for up to four drugs and has four microscale inorganic light-emitting diodes. They installed an expandable material at the bottom of the drug reservoirs to control delivery.
When the temperature on an electric heater beneath the reservoir rose then the bottom rapidly expanded
and pushed the drug out into the brain. e tried at least 30 different prototypes before one finally worked,
On the basis of information about the patient, the original tumour and the treatment used, they can accurately predict the odds of recurrence of breast cancer per year.
a so-called nomogram, that doctors can use together with patients to simply calculate the odds of recurrence of the disease themselves, on the basis of the age of the patient, the information on the original tumour and the treatment used.
says Stefan Offermanns, Director of the Pharmacology Department at the Max Planck Institute. Precisely how this happens is known not.
Understanding the mechanisms how virus enters the cell is beneficial for development of new antiviral agents.
All these results provide hope that science will soon manage to create new antiviral agents.
and roads while conducting a study to see what role they might play in causing cancer. e expect that this may allow us to identify targets for a new class of anticancer drugs.?
#Scientists determine structure of important drug target using groundbreaking X-ray laser approach Using the brightest X-ray laser in the world,
Researchers at Arizona State university Biodesign Institute Center for Applied Structural Discovery collaborated with an international team of researchers from 19 institutions working to develop a roadmap for more selectively targeting pathways for drug treatment.
GPCR drugs that selectively modulate one pathway are preferred often as they can have better therapeutic benefits with fewer undesirable side effects than non-selective drugs. rrestin
who led the study. n the realm of drug development, a detailed understanding of the structure,
The more specific the interaction, the better the drugs tend to work while also lowering the chance of side effects.
and account for about 40 percent of current drug targets. Researchers have been trying to determine the structure of a GPCR with arrestin for more than two decades,
controling its function. etermining the atomic structures of proteins in their active states is critical for developing effective drugs with far fewer side effects,
and provides an excellent guide for developing new drugs with fewer side effects. esearchers at the Center for Applied Structural Discovery helped to pioneer a new technique called femtosecond crystallography,
and cancer as well as to use this structure to screen for drug compounds that are designed to treat these diseases with far fewer side effects,
#New material opens possibilities for super-long-acting pills Medical devices designed to reside in the stomach have a variety of applications,
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,
In particular, 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,
Such single-administration events could improve medication adherence, which remains a major clinical barrier. According to the World health organization
Medication nonadherence costs the U s. an estimated $100 billion every year, the bulk of which comes in the form of unnecessary hospitalizations.
and could form the basis of optical computing. A nanoscale view of the new superfast fluorescent system using a transmission electron microscope.
as scientists have shown that using drugs to block PD-1 coaxes T cells to attack tumors.
and Jonathan Weissman, Phd, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF and a Howard hughes medical institute (HHMI) investigator.
it could be applied to a range of different MOFS with applications spanning energy and pharmaceuticals.
and deliver drugs and vaccines, a olar spongethat can capture and release carbon dioxide emissions andplastic material that gets better with age.
and drug discovery The liver plays a critical role in human metabolism. As the gatekeeper of the digestive track, this massive organ is responsible for drug breakdown
and is therefore the first to be injured due to overdose or misuse. Evaluating this drug-induced liver injury is a critical part of pharmaceutical drug discovery
and must be carried out on human liver cells. Regretfully, human liver cells, called hepatocytes, are in scarce supply as they can only be isolated from donated organs.
embryonic and genetic engineered stem cells. his is quite a revolution for pharmaceutical drug discovery, said Prof.
and could not be used reliably for drug discovery. In fact, up until now stem cell-derived hepatocytes showed little ability to predict clinical outcome.
The limited availability of functional hepatocytes for drug testing is a major bottleneck bringing pharmaceutical companies to spend $1 billion/year on liver cells alone. ur ability to produce an unlimited supply of functional liver
and bile acids that activate the fetal liver dormant drug metabolism program. The groundbreaking work further demonstrated that liver cells produced from either embryonic stem cells
can detect the toxic effect of over a dozen drugs with greater than 97%accuracy. he implications for liver biology
and drug discovery are said quite staggering Prof. Oren Shibolet, Head of the Liver Unit at the Tel-aviv Sourasky Medical center, who was involved not in this study. he method provides access to unlimited amounts of functional liver cells
and is likely to critically improve our ability to predict drug toxicity, which was limited previously by the unavailability of liver cells.
and drug metabolism in their children to develop quiet differently. n
#Nonsurgical approach helps people with paralysis voluntarily move their legs In a study conducted at UCLA,
a drug often used to treat anxiety disorders. Researchers placed electrodes at strategic points on the skin, at the lower back and near the tailbone and then administered a unique pattern of electrical currents.
#Scientists decipher the molecular basis of an as yet incurable leukemia in children Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of cancer in children.
Until now, the molecular basis of this dismal phenotype has remained elusive. An international group of clinicians and scientists from different universities and research institutions, among them the Berlin-based Max Planck Institute for Molecular genetics (Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Hans Lehrach, group
By establishing a umanized mouse model they provided an invaluable tool for testing the therapeutic response of the leukemic cells to different drugs.
The Zürich Group tested close to one hundred drug substances, and demonstrated exquisite response of the mouse model TCF3-HLF-positive cells to the drug Venetoclax,
a drug targeting the protein BCL2, which has shown already efficiency in other type of cancers.
Source: MP s
#Paralyzed men move legs with new noninvasive spinal cord stimulation Five men with complete motor paralysis were able to voluntarily generate step-like movements thanks to a new strategy that non-invasively delivers electrical
For the final four weeks of the study, the men were given the pharmacological drug buspirone
called Ribo-T, was created in the laboratories of Alexander Mankin, director of the UIC College of Pharmacy Center for Biomolecular Sciences,
The engineered ribosome may enable the production of new drugs and next-generation biomaterials and lead to a better understanding of how ribosomes function.
called Ribo-T, was created in the laboratories of Alexander Mankin, director of the UIC College of Pharmacy Center for Biomolecular Sciences,
It should also be possible to use captured performances as the basis for animated characters in games or other applications,
or that drug. hose are the kind of experiments that this study now tells us are conceptually possible,
Last week (June 18), the US Food and Drug Administration gave the company permission to begin selling its device,
says Andrew Pruszynski, an associate professor of physiology and pharmacology at Western University. He wasn't involved in the research
S, also called Mosquirix, is the product of British pharmaceutical company Glaxosmithkline and is funded partly by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
or one that can be used to mass produce a new drug. This"sets the stage for the production of entirely new classes of exotic molecules.""
Early results from a trial in Guinea show that the drug protected 100 percent of the people who received it against Ebola.
Among the 2, 014 people who received the drug immediately, no cases of Ebola were reported, starting 10 days after the initial vaccination,
it faces hurdles such as approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which may mean a clinical trial.
The overall trial constituted the basis for approval of the Cervarix vaccine in Europe and the United states. While the trial did not investigate the vaccine's efficacy in males, sexually transmitted HPV causes anogenital and head and neck cancers in both males and females.
and systemic infections that could be treated with antibiotics. Ninety-nine percent of them live in poor countries.
and eddies of little rain and snowstorms crossing the planet on an everyday basis. Large storms racing across the Southern ocean without any land impeding them can be identified.
and waterways by getting rid of oestrogenic hormones and pharmaceuticals, usually pass through conventional wastewater treatment methods. The TAML activators can activate nature's own oxidants hydrogen peroxide
"Pharmaceuticals can be bioactive at low environmentally-relevant concentrations and are typically tough to break down.
"Preliminary research suggests they would be equally effective against pollution caused by antimicrobials in personal care products and antibiotic pharmaceuticals.
This is particularly relevant for halting the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria.""Research teams at Brunel University London
which has an exclusive partnership with Novartis (NYSE: NVS), reported the cells showed no effect on the tumors.
the armored CAR-T cells become a icro-pharmacy. eeping tight control of that secretion is important.
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