The ability of some forms of plankton and bacteria to build an extra natural layer of nanoparticle-like armour has inspired chemists at the University of Warwick to devise a startlingly simple way to give drug bearing polymer vesicles (microscopic polymer based sacs of liquid) their own armoured protection. The Warwick researchers have been able to decorate these hollow structures with a variety of nanoparticles opening a new strategy in the design of vehicles for drug release, for example by giving the vesicle “stealth” capabilities which can avoid the body’s defences while releasing the drug.
31 January, 2011
In this Editors Choice newsletter, I wanted to highlight some of the recent excellent content that is being published in our sister journal, Drug Discovery Today: Technologies. In particular, I wanted to bring to your attention some excellent papers from our Spring 2010 issue, entitled: Mechanistic Pharmacology, New Developments.
28 January, 2011
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Prosensa today announced that the first patient has commenced treatment in the Phase III study investigating GSK2402968, in ambulant boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), who have a dystrophin gene mutation amenable to an exon 51 skip
19 January, 2011
Online Tuition Videos Give Rapid Insight into Many Chromatography Procedures
14 January, 2011
CANCER RESEARCH UK’s drug development office (DDO) has signed a Strategic Combinations Alliance with AstraZeneca to take combinations of experimental cancer drugs into early phase clinical trials.The move will increase patient access to trials of potential new cancer treatments that combine molecularly targeted experimental drugs developed and owned by AstraZeneca. The trials will also test these combinations alongside conventional chemotherapy radiotherapy and other novel agents.
14 January, 2011
A treatment for the incurable blood cancer Multiple Myeloma could be developed in the future if a groundbreaking scientific discovery is applied to new Leeds-based research into the disease.
07 January, 2011
For the first time, researchers have developed a 3D picture of a herpes virus protein interacting with a key part of the human cellular machinery, enhancing our understanding of how it hijacks human cells to spread infection and opening up new possibilities for stepping in to prevent or treat infection. This discovery uncovers one of the many tactical manoeuvres employed by the virus.
06 January, 2011