but it also suggests that these physical channels might be exploitable to deliver drug therapies. hope that the tools we have developed,
and by the pharmaceutical industry in the quest for novel anticancer drugs that block tumor-organ communication,
they observed a transfer of red material into the green healthy cells of the mice mammary fat pads. exican drug lords are not the only ones who use secret tunnels to move material across seemingly impenetrable borders,
when we discovered that a new drug we were studying specifically killed cancer cells with this mutation.
and his team showed that cancer cells with a mutated SETD2 gene were killed by a drug called AZD1775 that inhibits a protein called WEE1.
his novel and exciting finding provides a new scientific basis for precision targeting of some cancers
which could lead to new drugs for the disease. Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, has proved incredibly stubborn even in the age of powerful antibiotics,
infecting about one third of all people worldwide. Treatment can take up to nine months. It has stealth properties that protect it from antibiotics;
it can hide inside human cells, avoiding the body immune system while it waits for the opportune moment to multiply;
In order to make new drugs, researchers need to search through the thousands of proteins in the bacterial world to find one that does something so important the bacterium can live without itnd then make a little block to match.
Joachimiak said. his is very important for finding a molecule to build a drug aroundou don want to inhibit a human enzyme, just the pathogen one.
Researchers have been interested in the mycobacterium IMPDH enzyme as a drug target for years Joachimiak said,
When scientists develop a new drug, they need to work with the pharmaceutical industry to perform extensive tests to ultimately bring it to the consumers.
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,
New drugs are the most obvious story that could be told with the technology. A startup company called Synthorx, created by Romesberg
a way for another drug to attach to the protein at a specific site. The technology might also pave the way to new biotech drugs.
Nearly all such drugs proteins like insulin or the blood cell-booster erythropoietin, are made inside a bacterium or other cell.
But synthetic DNA could vastly expand what drugs are possible. That is because a normal cell builds proteins from just 20 amino acids,
stringing them together into long chains. Exactly which amino acid gets added next is specified by three-letter sequences of DNA, called codons.
Unlike conventional drugs, where chemists exert exquisite control over the position of every atom, with proteins they mostly still need a living thing to do their manufacturing for them. hen you get to whole proteins,
Turner thinks the system could be of interest to drug companies who could use it to generate ideas for new drugs. ou could make a million proteins with unnatural amino acids
And once synthetic biology leads to a new drug or vaccine, he thinks, wel get used to the idea of inventing life for our own good. ne has to pick the most near-term applications of this technology to show what it can really do for the good of mankind,
and established the basis for fusion to work. But there was not a great sense of urgency. ow the urgency has risen,
and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first-ever 3d printed drug, and it likely won't be the last.
Spritam is an epilepsy medication used to treat seizures in children and adults. It's porous thanks to the 3d printing process,
even in large doses. The pill is easy to take on the go since there's no measuring of medication.
Aprecia, which makes the drug, noted Spritam is designed to help epilepsy patients adhere to their treatment regimen
and should help children and seniors in particular. Because Spritam dissolves so rapidly patients who have problems swallowing
(or children who are reticent to take their medication) can take it more easily. Aprecia uses its own Zipdose Technology platform to make the drug.
Combining"formulation science"with 3d printing technology first developed at MIT, the company can make porous medications that disintegrate rapidly with very little liquid.
Aprecia plans to make more 3d printed medications for the central nervous system, manufacturing them on its own proprietary equipment.
Spritam is expected to be available in Q1 2016 6
#Tesla Model S hack marks third incident in two weeks Talk about a hat trick. Hackers sorry, security experts at mobile cybersecurity firm Lookout have compromised successfully a Tesla Model S. This is the third connected car hack in the last two weeks,
reliably and inexpensively solve an interesting problem that modern technology has to deal with on a daily basis,
California, said in a press release. ur research is in the early phase of drug development process,
the structures could help scientists screen drugs for toxicity and model normal and diseased kidney function,
the sensors could serve as the basis of wearable technology. hey are very thin and flexible,
#Epilepsy drug is approved first FDA 3d printed pill The first 3d printed pill has been approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA.
Developed by Aprecia Pharmaceuticals, Spritam (levetiracetam) is an oral adjunctive therapy to treat a range of seizures in adults and children with epilepsy.
The drug is fabricated with Aprecia proprietary Zipdose Technology platform, which uses 3d printing to produce a porous,
Thin layers of powdered medication are repeatedly spread on top of one another, as patterns of liquid droplets are deposited
The resultant drug is highly porous and can support doses of up to 1, 000mg that disintegrate in the patient in less than 10 seconds. y combining 3d printing technology with a highly-prescribed epilepsy treatment,
Spritam is designed to fill a need for patients who struggle with their current medication experience,
#Skin patch material releases drugs when it stretches Researchers have developed a method of drug delivery that consists of an elastic patch that can be applied to the skin
and release drugs when the patch is stretched. The wearable, tensile strain-triggered drug delivery device has been developed by researchers at North carolina State university
and the University of North carolina at Chapel hill. his could be used to release painkillers whenever a patient with arthritic knees goes for a walk,
These microcapsules, in turn, are packed with nanoparticles that can be filled with drugs. The university said in a statement that the microcapsules stick halfway out of the film, on the side of the film that touches a patient skin.
The drugs release slowly from the nanoparticles and are stored in the microcapsules. When the elastic film is stretched
and effectively squeezing some of the stored drug out onto the patient skin, where it can be absorbed. hen the microcapsule is stretched from left to right,
co-senior author of the paper and an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State. hat compression helps push the drug out of the microcapsule.
After being stretched, the microcapsule is refilled by the drugs that continue to leak out of the nanoparticles. his can be used to apply drugs directly to sites on the skin
such as applying anticancer medications to melanomas or applying growth factors and antibiotics for wound healing, said Jin Di,
co-lead author and a Ph d student in Gu lab. The researchers are said also to have incorporated microneedles into the system,
In this configuration, the drugs can be squeezed through the microneedles. The microneedles are small enough to be painless,
but large enough to allow drugs to diffuse into the bloodstream through tiny capillaries underneath the skin. his expands the range of drugs that can be applied using the technology,
and a Ph d student in Zhu lab. ee now exploring how this tool can be used to apply drugs efficiently
The paper, tretch-Triggered Drug Delivery from Wearable Elastomers Containing Therapeutic Depots, is published online in the journal ACS Nano.
reliably and inexpensively solve an interesting problem that modern technology has to deal with on a daily basis,
but slow progress is being made towards developing a drug treatment. So this proof-of-concept study is important
because it demonstrates that the memory game can help where drugs have failed so far. ecause the game is interesting,
n conjunction with medication and current psychological therapies, Wizard could help people with schizophrenia minimise the impact of their illness on everyday life. eople with schizophrenia often find studying
and direct drugs to damaged tissues. Writing in the journal Nature Communications the researchers describe how they used ultrasound to move tiny polystyrene beads measuring only 3mm across
said Marzo. r you could hold a drug wherever you wanted to inside a patient,
similar to an ultrasound scanner but for manipulating particles Targeted drug delivery and moving your kidney stones around are among the applications the researchers think could emerge from their work.*
"On a pound for pound basis,"Henderson claims,"there's no better way to levitate something than our engine."
#Genentech drug adds antibiotics to proteins to fight hidden bacteria Scientists at Genentech have armed the body immune system warriors with antibiotics
which means that bacteria that hide from drugs inside cells are now targets. In a study published today in Nature,
scientists linked an antibody with a derivative of a group of antibiotics called rifamycin. This resulting drug proved to be a powerful new treatment against Staphylococcus aureus;
it actually helped mice clear staph infections at a stage when conventional antibiotics normally stop being effective.
But that's only part of the reason why researchers are excited about the technique. What's truly different here is that unlike the related antibiotic rifampicin the linked antibody-antibiotic unit can kill Staphylococcus bacteria inside cells.
This means that it might one day be possible to use this technique to treat people with life-threatening antibiotic-resistant infections.
BACTERIA THAT HIDE FROM DRUGS INSIDE CELLS ARE TARGETS Staphylococcus aureus is a very common bacterium;
about 30 percent of people carry it around in their noses. Most of the time that isn't a problem,
certain strains have become resistant to common antibiotics. As a result, one type of resistant staph bacteria called MRSA causes over 80,000 infections and 11,285 deaths occur every year.
a hideout where antibiotics typically used against staph infections aren't as effective.""Staph can hide inside blood cells for a couple of hours or days,
"says Sanjeev Mariathasan, a biologist Genentech, the biotech company behind the study. That's a big problem because drugs that are used normally against staph infections can take over four hours to work far longer than it takes for Staph bacteria to move into new cells,
he says.""So we asked the question:''Can we tag the bacteria with antibodies armed with really potent antibiotics and kill these pathogens inside the cell?'"
'"MICE RECOVERED MUCH SOONER That's exactly what the researchers did in this study and it seems to work at least in mice.
Genentech manufactured antibodies based on those the immune system makes to combat staph infections. Then, the researchers attached the antibiotics to the antibody by using amino acids as glue.
When combined the drug becomes far better at specifically targeting staph at specifically targeting Staph bacteria compared with conventional antibiotics."
"The researchers showed that the drug was effective against this strain; it worked the way it was designed to,
"says Gerald Pier, a microbiologist at Harvard university who also acts as a consultant for Visterra,
The drug is definitely in its infancy, but it holds a lot of promise. Scientists haven't been able to conclusively say
Because the drug acts inside cells it's possible that this treatment might one day help people avoid repeated infections,
Because the antibiotic is only active inside infected cells, it won wipe out the other bacteria beneficial bacteria with drugs distributed more broadly in the body.
That means that people might end up being less vulnerable to other illnesses than they normally would following the treatment.
of which are good indicators of a drug's effect on humans. Mariathasan declined to tell The Verge
but he says that Genentech is interested"obviously in whether this translates into human results.""In addition, the drug is very specific,
and so if it does make it to humans, doctors will probably only be able to give it to patients with a firm diagnosis. In some parts of the world,
Still, the act of combining two different weapons antibodies and antibiotics to fight off infections is an intriguing idea.
Dre announced the album on his own Beats 1 radio show, The Pharmacy, and it premiered a day early on Apple's streaming service, before full release on itunes on July 7th.
Storage is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis at 17 cents per GB per month for SSD-based storage.
which is known for its manually applied disinfectants. In 2014 the company entered the disinfection robot market
and working on an open hardware basis, has been selling 3d printers since 1998, according to Felip Fonollosa, its director general.
Nine patients were treated with tocilizumab an immunosuppressant drug that blocks the effects of the inflammatory cytokine IL-6
In July 2014 the U s. Food and Drug Administration granted CTL019 its Breakthrough Therapy designation for the treatment of relapsed and refractory adult and pediatric ALL a step
#Optimal particle size for anticancer nanomedicines discovered Nanomedicines consisting of nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery to specific tissues
and his collaborators systematically evaluated the size-dependent biological profiles of three monodisperse drug-silica nanoconjugates at 20 50 and 200 nm.
and Leber's congenital amaurosis by providing novel drug targets to prevent photoreceptor degeneration concludes Dr. Cayouette.
We were pleased quite that the work led us to NOS3-targeting drugs that are already available
along with a drug that selectively destroys the diseased cells brimming with the mineral leaving non-cancer cells healthy.
The combination approach which uses two drugs already commercially available for other uses could soon be tested in clinical trials among patients with late-stage disease.
This proclivity for copper uptake is something we have known could be an Achilles'heel in prostate cancer tumors as well as other cancers said Donald Mcdonnell Ph d. chairman of the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and senior author
and then use a drug that requires copper to be effective to attack the tumors.
Among those they found was disulfiram a drug approved by the FDA to treat alcoholism.
The Duke team found that the amount of copper cancer cells naturally hoard is not enough to make the cells sensitive to the drug.
These processes are the basis for liver cell degeneration which can cause HCC explains Prof.
and controlled drug release systems the researchers said. Biomedical applications include microfluidic devices that can handle
Researchers used tumour cells derived from 100 different glioblastoma patients to test drugs that could target the disease.
when using a drug AZD8055 combined with Temozolomide (TMZ)--a drug already taken by most glioblastoma patients--the life of the animals was extended by 30 per cent.
and Dr. Lesley Seymour (Director of the NCIC Clinical Trials Group's Investigational New Drug Program) and drug manufacturer Astrazeneca to plan a clinical trial testing a similar but newer drug
This is an important initiative--to test new drugs being developed for other types of cancers in the laboratory to identify which are most promising for testing in patients with glioblastoma.
The underlying basis of the connection between neurological disease and changes in the olfactory system is also unknown
Dr Burton's work could point to the potential development of new drugs as well as new approaches to preventing brain damage and death.
Dr Burton has found that applying a drug that closes the water channels can inhibit initial water entry helping to close the window of vulnerability.
A second drug used later in the progression of the injury acts to enhance the water channel activity letting superfluous moisture out when needed.
This work also demonstrates for the first time that recently discovered drug-like compounds can be used in series to initially reduce water entry
Continued work showed that Yohimbin a drug that had been deregistered for several years effectively blocked the gene variant's damaging effects both in animal experiments
The fact that this was an old drug made this journey a lot faster. The substance had already been tested for safety
The substance must also be tested on more patients before it can become a clinical drug says Anders Rosengren adding purely theoretically the drug should be effective for the 40 per cent of type 2 diabetes sufferers who are carriers of the genetic risk variant.
Based on currently available satellite observations electron precipitation may during solar storms lasting a few days reduce ozone in the upper atmosphere (60-80 km) as much as 90 per cent on a momentary basis
The Suntag was developed by researchers in the lab of Ron Vale Phd a professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology and a HHMI investigator at UCSF.
In collaboration with Jonathan Weissman Phd professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology and a Howard hughes medical institute (HHMI) investigator at UCSF UCSF researchers also used the Suntag to supercharge a variation of a biochemical approach known as CRISPR.
and Normal Developmentcrispr--an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats--is a natural system that bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses. The basis for CRISPR applications in the lab is a protein from this system called Cas9
For instance these methods could be used to identify biochemical pathways that cancer cells may use to develop drug resistance
By preventing protein production RNA interference may be used to get around the problem of difficult-to-target proteins a frequent challenge in drug development.
which cancer cells develop resistance to anticancer drugs--a process that typically involves gene activation n
In a paper published today in the journal Cancer cell the researchers report how the drug known as DTP3 kills myeloma cells in laboratory tests in human cells
The new drug works by stopping a key process that allows cancer cells to multiply. The team have been awarded Biomedical Catalyst funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to take the drug into a clinical trial in multiple myeloma patients scheduled to begin in late 2015.
Multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer of the bone marrow which accounts for nearly two per cent of all cancer deaths.
The new drug was developed by studying the mechanisms that enable cancer cells to outlive their normal lifespan
Further refinements led to the experimental drug DTP3 which tests showed kills cancer cells very effectively
and other drug candidates based on Professor Franzoso's research with support from Imperial Innovations a technology commercialisation company focused on developing the most promising UK academic research.
and in essence provides the basis for a fructose tolerance test. Accumulating evidence suggests that the fructose component of sugar may have a particularly deleterious effect on health explains co-senior author Mark Herman MD of the Division of Endocrinology Diabetes
Semiconductors which form the basis of modern electronics are doped by adding a small number of impure atoms to tune their properties for specific applications.
#Versatile antibiotic found with self-immunity gene on plasmid in staph strain A robust broad spectrum antibiotic
and a gene that confers immunity to that antibiotic are both found in the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis Strain 115.
The antibiotic a member of the thiopeptide family of antibiotics is not in widespread use partly due to its complex structure
and derivitization so that new and possibly more potent versions of the antibiotic can become available says co-corresponding author Joel S. Griffitts.
It quickly became clear to the investigators that Strain 115 could produce a potent antibiotic that targets a large number of medically relevant bacteria including those that cause staph infections strep throat and severe gastrointestinal diseases.
We wanted to know the identity of this antibiotic and the means by which Strain 115 protects itself from its own antibiotic's deadly effects says Griffitts.
We found that the genes for both antibiotic synthesis and self protection in Strain 115 are clustered conveniently on a compact DNA molecule a plasmid that replicates itself as a small circle within the cells of Strain 115 says Griffitts.
Among experiments they conducted to prove this they engineered a version of Strain 115 that was missing the plasmid.
That version failed to produce both the antibiotic and the immunity to the antibiotic. The investigators then analyzed the mechanism of immunity.
Thiopeptide antibiotics kill cells by blocking a part of the ribosome Griffitts explains. Ribosomes common to all living organisms are the machines that read the genetic code producing proteins based on the instructions therein.
The plasmid which directs the production of the thiopeptide antibiotic also directs production of a spare part for the ribosome a replacement for the part that is blocked by the antibiotic
which renders the ribosome insensitive to the antibiotic. The investigation of Strain 115 began as an undergraduate project after the bacteria had sat in a laboratory freezer for decades says Griffitts.
Hopefully he says the research will ultimately enable production of a valuable antibiotic in quantities sufficient to make a dent in the antibiotic crisis. Story Source:
#Bio-inspired nano-cocoons offer targeted drug delivery against cancer cells Biomedical engineering researchers have developed a drug delivery system consisting of nanoscale ocoonsmade of DNA that target cancer cells
and trick the cells into absorbing the cocoon before unleashing anticancer drugs. The work was done by researchers at North carolina State university
and the University of North carolina at Chapel hill. his drug delivery system is based DNA which means it is biocompatible
Chapel hill. his technique also specifically targets cancer cells can carry a large drug load and releases the drugs very quickly once inside the cancer cellgu says. n addition
because we used self-assembling DNA techniques it is relatively easy to manufacturesays Wujin Sun lead author of the paper
The core of the nano-cocoon contains the anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) and a protein called DNASE.
and think it holds promise for delivering a variety of drugs targeting cancer and other diseases. he paper ocoon-Like Self-Degradable DNA-Nanoclew for Anticancer Drug Deliverywas published online Oct 13 in the Journal
Tianyue Jiang a Ph d. student in the joint biomedical engineering department and at the China Pharmaceutical University;
and Dr. Ran Mo a former postdoctoral researcher in the joint biomedical engineering department now at the China Pharmaceutical University.
Accordingly it is employed commonly as an anti-inflammatory medication. Prolonged elevated levels of cortisol in the body can lead to obesity muscular dystrophy depression and other symptoms.
or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays. Naturally found in a spherical shape NTU Singapore developed a simple method to turn titanium dioxide particles into tiny nanotubes that are a thousand times thinner than the diameter of a human hair.
Beer mugs baby bottles and pharmaceutical glass products such as vials are decorated and labeled in about like the perfume bottles are.
The basis of these novel decorative paints is a glass that consists mainly of zinc oxide.
The use of nanoparticles in applications ranging from electronics to pharmaceuticals is a lively area of research;
or save lives on a daily basis . However any device implanted in the body or in contact with flowing blood faces two critical challenges that can threaten the life of the patient the device is meant to help:
They developed a new surface coating for medical devices using materials already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA.
#Longer-term outcomes of program to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions The initial benefits of an outpatient antimicrobial stewardship intervention designed to reduce the rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions were lost after discontinuation of audit
Antibiotics are the most frequently prescribed medications for children; most are prescribed for outpatient acute respiratory tract infections.
Because antibiotic prescribing is often inappropriate Jeffrey S. Gerber M d. Ph d. of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
and colleagues recently conducted a randomized trial of an outpatient antimicrobial stewardship intervention that found a nearly 50 percent relative reduction in prescribing rates for broad-spectrum antibiotics according to background information in the article.
To assess the durability of this intervention the researchers followed antibiotic prescribing across intervention and control sites after termination of audit and feedback.
and audit and feedback of antibiotic prescribing. Nine practices received the intervention and 9 practices received no intervention.
Twelve months after initiating the study the researchers stopped providing antibiotic prescribing audit and feedback to clinicians in the intervention group.
and feedback broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing decreased from 26.8 percent to 14.3 percent among intervention practices vs 28.4 percent to 22.6 percent in controls.
Following termination of audit and feedback however prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics increased over time reverting to above-baseline levels After restandardization of the data set for the additional 18 months of data antibiotic prescribing increased from 16.7 percent
and that antimicrobial stewardship requires continued active efforts to sustain initial improvements in prescribing. Our findings suggest that extending antimicrobial stewardship to the ambulatory setting can be effective
but should include continued feedback to clinicians the authors write. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by The JAMA Network Journals.
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