while pain treatment options are limited to opioid-family pharmaceuticals such as morphine. It was while conducting clinical research at the University of California San francisco
A New Direction for Drug Research The startling discovery of TMPRSS2 role in triggering cancer pain may lead to the creation of targeted cancer pain therapies that effectively shut down the expression of this gene
Inhibition of its activity in patients might provide a new form of treatment for cancer pain. ny cancer that is painful before initiating drug treatment we can label the cancer cells for TMPRSS2
#Researchers'"hugely exciting"asthma discovery Cardiff scientists have identified for the first time the potential root cause of asthma and an existing drug that offers a new treatment.
Crucially, the paper highlights the effectiveness of a class of drugs known as calcilytics in manipulating Casr to reverse all symptoms associated with the condition.
Professor Riccardi and her collaborators are now seeking funding to determine the efficacy of calcilytic drugs in treating asthmas that are especially difficult to treat,
and to test these drugs in patients with asthma. Calcilytics were developed first for the treatment of osteoporosis around 15 years ago with the aim of strengthening deteriorating bone by targeting Casr to induce the release of an anabolic hormone.
But this latest breakthrough has provided researchers with the unique opportunity to re-purpose these drugs,
the group aim to be trialling the drugs on humans within two years. f we can prove that calcilytics are administered safe
Antiretroviral drugs can slow the spread of the virus, but it remains hidden dormant in cells and returns when the treatments cease.
but cleaning using disinfectant is no problem, says Brunner. The sensors are stitched either or glued between two layers of fabric,
The antiparasitic drug ivermectin, or IVM, can be used to treat these diseases, but mass public health campaigns to administer the medication have been stalled because of potentially fatal side effects for patients co-infected with Loa loa,
which causes loiasis, or African eye worm. When there are high circulating levels of microscopic Loa loaworms in a patient,
The achievement was made possible by a new generation of drug-containing coating applied to the inner surface of the vessel.
The team managed to synthesize a thin film made of densely packed aluminum oxide nanorods blended with molecules of a thrombolytic enzyme (urokinase-type plasminogen activator.
The lifetime of such grafts is determined often by the amount of drug stored within the graft
The system, developed by the researchers, is based on the entrapment of the drug inside a porous protective shell,
You just need to take the right kind of drug. For example, after the implantation of an artificial ureter, urease crystals often start to grow inside
It is possible to apply a similar drug-containing coating that dissolves urease. The same approach may be used for kidney or liver surgery
or replacement genes or drugs inside a man-made biodegradable nanoparticle rapperthat patients inhale could penetrate the mucus barrier
patients would experience fewer side effects common to drugs that must be taken regularly over long stretches of time.
Most of the existing drugs for CF help clear infections but do not solve the disease underlying problems.
A couple of recently approved drugs designed to target the underlying cause of CF require daily treatment for the entire lifetime
bacteria could be reprogrammed to convert readily available sources of natural energy into pharmaceuticals, plastics and fuel products. he basic idea is that we want to accelerate evolution to make awesome amounts of valuable chemicals,
or costly pharmaceuticals and give microbes a voice to report on their own efficiency in making these products. e can communicate with cells much more effectively,
which we would rely on biomanufacturing for the clean production of chemical and pharmaceutical commodities, said Wyss Institute Founding Director Donald E. Ingber,
and explore potential drug targets to help cancer patients p
#How chronic inflammation can lead to cancer Chronic inflammation caused by disease or exposure to dangerous chemicals has long been linked to cancer,
Yount lab has begun using experimental drugs to test this flu prevention strategy in mice. Any possibility for human use is still many years away,
says Hubbard, an assistant professor of pharmacology in the University of Alberta Faculty of medicine & Dentistry. ee moving towards a very logical type of treatment for genetic diseases,
and plans to continue his research in the quickly expanding field. hereas traditional pharmaceutical drugs have a transient effect,
A process that had taken a year from farm to pharmaceutical factory now occurs in three to five days in yeast genetically engineered to biosynthesize the active ingredients for opioid painkillers;
Hydrocodone and its chemical relatives such as morphine and oxycodone are opioids members of a family of painkilling drugs sourced from the opium poppy.
It can take more than a year to produce a batch of medicine, starting from the farms in Australia,
processed and shipped to pharmaceutical factories in the United states, where the active drug molecules are extracted
and refined into medicines. hen we started work a decade ago, many experts thought it would be impossible to engineer yeast to replace the entire farm-to-factory process,
or later refined into pills using chemical processes to extract and concentrate their active ingredients. Smolke team is modernizing the process by inserting precisely engineered snippets of DNA into cells, such as yeast,
or no access to pain medications. iotech production could lower costs and, with proper controls against abuse, allow bioreactors to be located where they are needed,
Bio-produced thebaine would still need to be refined through sophisticated processes in pharmaceutical factories, but it would eliminate the time delay of growing poppies. he molecules we produced
and have implications for efforts to promote fracture repair. any of the current pharmaceutical protocols are based on using fibrin to promote fracture healing,
He points out that some of the medications developed for cardiovascular medicine to prevent clotting may find new purposes in enhancing tissue repair and regeneration i
In this latest study, led by Michael Karin, Phd, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology, researchers traced the cells responsible for replenishing hepatocytes following chronic liver injury induced by exposure to carbon tetrachloride, a common environmental toxin.
said Patrick Beukema, the lead author and a graduate student in the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh (CNUP) and the joint Pitt and CMU Center for the Basis of Neural Cognition (CNBC).
The materials that pharmaceutical companies use to test drugseffects on cells don allow for three-dimensional vascularization, a network of capillaries that carry drugs and other materials throughout the body.
but also aid in drug screening. he microenvironment actually has a significant effect on how the cells respond to a drug,
Grolman said. hese companies might have the next big drug, but they might not know it. he long-term vision would be:
whether they be targeted drug delivery, electrical stimulation or even light-plus-optogenetics through fiber optics, will all be closed loop.
and Emory University to clamp firing at normal levels during the addition of a drug that inhibits neurotransmission.
They could be used for therapeutic drug screening and to help teach researchers how to grow whole human organs.
the paper senior author and an associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF. e can take any cell type we want
and building a model of their tissue to use as a personalized drug screening platform.
or five days as the medication took effect. In the past, the patient would have needed blood draws to monitor levels
and stop his medication. Fabrication and design Wang team created a screen-printed sensor using silver, Prussian blue ink and uricase,
Unfortunately, although the mathematical basis for this method known as squeezing of resonance fluorescence was drawn up in 1981,
#Team develops quick way to determine bacteria antibiotic resistance Bacteria ability to become resistant to antibiotics is a growing issue in health care:
One way to combat this is to determine bacteria antibiotic resistance in a given patient, but that often takes days
ASU scientists have developed a technique that can sort antibiotic-resistant from usceptiblebacteria, and it happens in a matter of minutes.
The ability to quickly judge whether a bacteria is resistant to antibiotics could make a major difference in a patient's treatment.
The ability to quickly judge whether a bacteria is resistant to antibiotics could make a major difference in a patient treatment.
to tell the difference between the two strains (antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-susceptible) ofstaphylococcus epidermidis.
After a multi-decade ledgehammerapproach, focused on killing all bacteria via soaps, detergents, antibiotics and hand sanitizers,
One type of adaptation is resistance to antibiotics, and this is becoming a huge and worldwide problem.
antibiotic-resistant and susceptible Staphylococcus epidermidis. Their results have recently been published in the journal Analyst. Photo by:
antibiotic-resistant and susceptible Staphylococcus epidermidis. Their results have recently been published in the journal Analyst. Photo by:
at least 2 million people acquire serious infections with antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. At least 23,000 people die as a direct result of these infections,
Antibiotic-resistance adaptation is a natural phenomenon. When an antibiotic is used bacteria that can resist that antibiotic obviously have a greater chance of survival than those that are susceptible,
and so the resistance passes to the next generation. Some of the most notorious antibiotic-resistant strains and species belong to the genus Staphylococcus.
They are classified typically as pathogenic or non-pathogenic based on production of the enzyme coagulase. Staphylococcus epidermidis does not produce coagulase,
and it is generally less invasive than Staphylococcus aureus. In fact, it is a normal and commensal resident of human skin.
By most metrics the antibiotic-resistant and susceptible strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis are phenotypically identical, and thus present a major challenge to traditional analytical separation techniques.
Current clinical approaches to determination of antibiotic resistance often require two or more days to obtain results.
They typically rely upon treating the bacteria with antibiotics, then observing colony growth patterns. The long turnaround times lead to increased reliance upon broad-spectrum antimicrobials and generally lead to suboptimal outcomes for patients (including increased mortality rates.
Scientists in the Hayes group at ASU Department of chemistry and Biochemistry soon to become the School of Molecular Sciences are enabling a handheld,
and Shannon (Huey) Hilton, has separated extremely similar bacteria Gentamicin (antibiotic) resistant and susceptible bacteria. Their results have recently been published in the journal Analyst. he important thing for the patient
potentially improving nearly every figure of merit for diagnostics and antibiotic stewardship o
#acterial Litmus Testprovides Inexpensive Measurement of Micronutrients A bacterium engineered to produce different pigments in response to varying levels of a micronutrient in blood samples could give health officials an inexpensive way to detect nutritional
#New method for modifying natural polymers could help bring lifesaving medications to market In drug-delivery research,
the drug must also be able to safely reach its target. Xiangtao Meng, a fourth-year graduate student in the College of Natural resources and Environment, has developed a new technique to make that easier.
a natural polymer often used for drug delivery. According to Kevin Edgar, a professor of sustainable biomaterials and Meng doctoral adviser, the new method an get drugs to market,
and to patients, that would otherwise fail. Taking medications orally is typically much more practical for patients than methods like intravenous injections
but the bioavailability of a drug the amount that actually reaches the bloodstream often suffers.
In order to reach the circulatory system, a drug taken orally must dissolve in the digestive tract. But many pharmaceutically active compounds tend to crystallize,
making them less soluble. And some medications aren stable in the harsh environment of the stomach.
That means that patients have to ingest more of a drug to get the therapeutic dose increasing the cost, risk of side effects,
and the likelihood that the patient will simply miss a dose. Suspending the drug in a polymer matrix can help.
Polymers are long chains of repeating units. Many familiar materials are polymers including proteins, DNA,
Dispersing a drug in a polymer matrix protects it and suppresses the formation of insoluble crystals.
and releases the drug, allowing it to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Because medications have broadly diverse chemical structures, properties,
and dosing and delivery requirements, finding the right polymer matrix to work well with most drugs involves making
and testing many different options. Meng chemistry offers a new way to make a wide variety of polymer matrices using cellulose as a starting material.
Cellulose is an attractive material for drug delivery because it nontoxic breaks down into components that are already present in the body,
limiting the number of options for drug delivery. Meng decided to investigate whether he could modify cellulose using a technique called olefin cross-metathesis,
and could be used to make a huge array of potential drug-delivery matrices, but it had never been applied to cellulose.
renewable starting material to develop a wide variety of polymers specifically tuned to carry many different pharmaceutical targets.
which he sends to collaborators in a drug-delivery group at Purdue University. The team is currently targeting HIV drugs,
which have notoriously poor solubility. Meng, an ICTAS doctoral scholar from Shandong Province, China, is now working on incorporating another type of chemical reaction that will allow even more versatility like rowing apples and peaches on the same tree,
like the synthesis of antibacterial hydrogels for wound dressing, he said f
#New way to repair nerves: Using exosomes to hijack cell-to-cell communication Regenerative medicine using stem cells is an increasingly promising approach to treat many types of injury.
funding research into a new way to deliver protein-based cancer-fighting drugs and other therapeutics directly into cells.
who earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering at Rutgers and now works in biopharmaceutical research and development at Glaxosmithkline.
it also presents a target of a molecular class already well-established to be useful for drug discovery.
Drug development has proven problematic due to the limited understanding of the underlying causes of ASD,
as demonstrated by the recent failure of several much anticipated drug trials. There are also no current, reliable diagnostic biomarkers for ASD.
which impedes diagnosis and, ultimately, drug development. There simply may be too many targets, each with too small an effect.
In the area of drug discovery, scientists at the Center for Autism Research & Translation continue to probe the IP3R channel,
and just hope for the best, said Wendell Lim, Phd, professor and chair of UCSF Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology,
unless a specially designed drug has been administered. This controller drug forms a chemical bridge between components inside the CAR T cells
When the drug is no longer present, the T cells revert to an ffposition. The power of the new system is illustrated vividly in videos taken by the researchers through microscopes.
but only after the controller drug had been administered. Controlling Through Drug Dosagethe drug-based remote control system devised by Lim
and colleagues does more than merely switch CAR T cells between nand ffstates. It can also act like a rheostat:
the dosage of the drug precisely regulates the level of the T cellsimmune activity. These combined control capabilities could be employed to manage the various side effects of CAR T therapy.
By ialing inthe level of immune response using appropriate dosages of the controller drug, doctors may be able to precisely manage these side effects to meet individual patientsneeds.
and drug screening. However, many of these microfluidic devices operate at only a few hundred cells per second,
This method will allow us to see which drug will activate a given gene. An individual cells rely on the same set of genes as instructions for protein production.
For example, they could look for a drug that could change the hypermethylation that has been associated with a specific cancer.
or water and therapeutic drug monitoring at home, a feature which could drastically improve the efficient of various class of drugs and treatments v
#afepay First anti-fraud system to use existing credit card readers From large-scale data breaches such as the 2013 Target case to local schemes that use skimming devices to steal data at the gas pump,
Human cells express Interferon Induced Transmembranes (IFITM) proteins that possess antiviral characteristics. These proteins have been shown to inhibit a number of viruses including influenza A
and their antiviral function. e have understood long that IFITM proteins have antiviral functions, but until now we did not know exactly how the proteins specifically inhibited the transmission of HIVLIU said. ee known that HIV-1,
or water and therapeutic drug monitoring at home, a feature which could drastically improve the efficient of various class of drugs and treatments v
#Self-assembling material that grows and changes shape could lead to artificial arteries Researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have developed a way of assembling organic molecules into complex tubular tissue-like structures without the use of moulds
or more effective drug screening methods. Alvaro Mata, Director of the Institute of Bioengineering at QMUL and lead author of the paper
#Researchers disguise drugs as platelets to target cancer Researchers have developed for the first time a technique that coats anticancer drugs in membranes made from a patient own platelets,
allowing the drugs to last longer in the body and attack both primary cancer tumors and the circulating tumor cells that can cause a cancer to metastasize.
The work was tested successfully in an animal model. here are two key advantages to using platelet membranes to coat anticancer drugs,
the drug carriers aren identified as foreign objects, so last longer in the bloodstream. his combination of features means that the drugs can
not only attack the main tumor site, but are more likely to find and attach themselves to tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream essentially attacking new tumors before they start,
which are placed then in a solution with a nanoscale gel containing the anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox),
so that their surfaces are coated with the anticancer drug TRAIL, which is most effective at attacking the cell membranes of cancer cells.
and TRAIL in the pseudo-platelet drug delivery system was significantly more effective against large tumors
Gu says. nd we think it could be used to deliver other drugs, such as those targeting cardiovascular disease, in
REACH researchers are laying the foundation for interactive software that would allow drug developers, or maybe even doctors, to provide lots of information,
as well as genes that would indicate the pathogen is resistant to treatment with antibiotics or other drugs, said co-author Kristine Wylie, Phd, assistant professor of pediatrics.
In the meantime, the technology can be used by scientists to study viruses in a research setting. Kristine Wylie investigates the viruses that set up residence in and on the human body, collectively known as the virome.
and created a new diagnostic technology based on advanced self learning computer algorithms whichn the basis of a biopsy from a metastasisan with 85 per cent certainty identify the source of the disease
or get medication to reduce their metabolic syndrome severity and their future risk for disease, Deboer said.
whether HIV-positive people are infected with a drug-resistant strain or a non-resistant strain allow patients to get the most effective treatment as quickly as possible.
those pairs that perfectly match the target HIV RNA containing a mutation that causes drug resistance can rapidly become fused together,
quick and accurate HIV drug resistance mutation detection system for use in developing nations. e met soon thereafter
electrical devices (pacemakers or defibrillators) or drugs (eg beta blockers. However, these methods are relatively crude: they can stop
leading to new drug designs and reducing disease. DNA NANOSTRUCTURES: Conducting nanoscale biomolecular research could lead to low-cost DNA sequencing technologies,
and in turn create targeted drug delivery systems and help explain the molecular causes of disease.
and relapsing multiple sclerosis Three phase three clinical studies using the drug ocrelizumab to treat patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have yielded positive results for treating two forms of the disease and the first ever positive results
on 732 patients with PPMS, found that those treated with the drug had a reduction in the progression of clinical disability of 24 per cent.
open up the possibility that a single drug designed to target this molecular fault could be developed to treat both diseases.
electrical devices (pacemakers or defibrillators) or drugs (eg beta blockers. However, these methods are relatively crude: they can stop
The findings, published Oct 19 in Nature Immunology, reveal previously unknown weapons in the body antiviral immune arsenal
and provide guidelines for designing drugs that could be effective against a broad range of viruses. The strategy involves enhancing the body interferon signaling system,
long understood to be a vital part of antiviral defenses. ee discovered a new component of the interferon system,
Despite the strong antiviral immune response seen in the new study, Holtzman and his colleagues reported no evidence of autoimmune disease in these mice.
and absence of destructive autoimmunity could be that the researchersstrategy did not involve increasing the amount of interferon, the first step of this important antiviral signaling cascade.
which sets off the rest of the antiviral cascade. It like greasing the wheels. Wee not pushing the system any harder.
and continue their destructive march through the body. his dual mechanism of action is a great guideline for how we would like to build a new antiviral drug,
according to Holtzman, is that a drug with this dual function could be effective against different kinds of viruses that affect a variety of tissues,
drug discovery Mini-kidney organoids have now been grown in a laboratory by using genome editing to re-create human kidney disease in petri dishes.
The work paves the way for personalized drug discovery for kidney disease. The mini-kidney organoids were grown from pluripotent stem cells.
as important for understanding the potential of mini-kidneys for clinical kidney regeneration and drug discovery.
better ways to perform linical trials in a dishto test drugs and therapies that might work in humans.
to model human kidney development and to test for drug toxicity. Now, using gene-editing tools,
better ways of testing out drugs and therapies that might work in humans. g
#Snake venom helps hydrogels stop the bleeding Rice university lab employs clotting powers of viper-derived drug,
even in presence of anticoagulants A nanofiber hydrogel infused with snake venom may be the best material to stop bleeding quickly, according to Rice university scientists.
particularly for patients who take anticoagulant drugs to thin their blood. t interesting that you can take something so deadly
an anticoagulant drug. rom a clinical perspective, that far and away the most important issue here, Hartgerink said. here a lot of different things that can trigger blood coagulation,
as a result of their discovery. bout one-third of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy do not respond to medications.
Over the last five years, UGA College of Pharmacy associate professors Mandi Murph and Shelley Hooks have discovered that a type of protein known as RGS10 impacts the effectiveness of ovarian cancer chemotherapy.
then we could potentially restore sensitivity to drugs, she explained. t would mean a better chance of survival for women with ovarian cancer.
Currently, platinum chemotherapy drugs, like paclitaxel and carboplatin are used as a one-size-fits-all treatment for ovarian cancer patients.
However, chemoresistance to platinum drugs remains a serious challenge to curing ovarian cancer. Murph recommends more research on mtor inhibitors to see how they can be modified to respond to chemotherapy. ive years ago
The discovery has raised hopes that a drug that targets the receptors and stops the cancer will soon be developed.
not just those with hereditary ovarian cancer. ome drugs are showing promise as a treatment for patients with hereditary ovarian cancer,
Researchers believe the Ror amilyof receptor molecules are attractive drug targets for three reasons. First, the receptors are not usually present in normal adult tissues
which means that any drug therapy will likely have few side effects. Second the location of the receptors on the outer surface of cancer cells means they can be accessed easily by drugs.
Third, Ror1 and Ror2 are a specific type of receptor that controls many other genes,
and spread of ovarian cancer. nce we better understand the roles of these receptors we will be in a position to develop a drug to target these receptors and hopefully halt ovarian cancer in its tracks,
Originally discovered as an antiviral system in bacteria, CRISPR/Cas9 is one of the hottest topics in genetic research today.
and change how different people respond to drugs. But only if the CRISPR technique is specific enough.
and how they vary between cell types, during development or in response to drug treatment. urrent methods for controlling gene switches,
including drugs used in clinical trials, change the activity of many switches across the genome simultaneously,
and that could eventually lead to the development of a drug to enhance recovery from strokes n
provides he ability to pick the best heat-transfer profile on an as needed basis, rather than having to pick a single type of nucleation behavior that allows margins for the most extreme heating that is ever expected for a given device. his allows you to pick the optimum rate of heat transfer moment by moment,
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