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- July 2013
Pharmacology/ Therapeutics News for July 2013
The National Institutes of Health has launched three innovative projects that will focus on development of therapeutics for Fragile X syndrome, nicotine addiction, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). These projects are funded through the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network which provides access to a variety of drug development resources.
31 July, 2013
Many drugs such as agents for cancer or autoimmune diseases have nasty side effects because while they kill disease-causing cells, they also affect healthy cells. Now a new study has demonstrated a technique for developing more targeted drugs, by using molecular “robots” to hone in on more specific populations of cells.
29 July, 2013
A new stem cell-based approach to studying epilepsy has yielded a surprising discovery about what causes one form of the disease, and may help in the search for better medicines to treat all kinds of seizure disorders. The findings, reported by a team of scientists from the University of Michigan Medical School and colleagues, use a technique that could be called “epilepsy in a dish”.
25 July, 2013
Scientists have found a way to sneak nanoparticles carrying tumor-fighting drugs past cells of the immune system, which would normally engulf the particles, preventing them from reaching their target. The technique takes advantage of the fact that all cells in the human body display a protein on their membranes that functions as a specific ‘passport’ in instructing immune cells not to attack them. By attaching a small piece of this protein to nanoparticles, scientists were able to fool immune cells in mice into recognizing the particles as ‘self’ rather than foreign, thereby increasing the amount of medication delivered to tumors.
17 July, 2013
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered that a protein used by cancer cells to evade death also has a vital role in heart health. This dual role complicates efforts to develop cancer drugs that target the protein, but may lead to new therapies for heart muscle damage. The research appeared in the June 15 edition of the scientific journal Genes & Development.
15 July, 2013
Forma Therapeutics and Cancer Research Technology, Ltd. (CRT), the commercialisation company of Cancer Research UK, announced today a bold research initiative to discover innovative tools, technologies and therapeutic drug candidates against a variety of protein homeostasis regulators called, deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs).
09 July, 2013
Cancer Research UK scientists are the first to use an efficient new screening strategy to identify gene faults in tumour cells that are possible drug targets for the most common form of lung cancer, according to new research published in PNAS, today.
08 July, 2013
The influenza virus’ ability to mutate quickly has produced new, emerging strains that make drug discovery more critical than ever. For the first time, researchers at Seattle BioMed, along with collaborators at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Washington, have mapped how critical molecules regulate both the induction and resolution of inflammation during flu infection. The results are published this month in the journal Cell.
04 July, 2013
NY-Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified two promising candidates for the development of drugs against human adenovirus, a cause of ailments ranging from colds to gastrointestinal disorders to pink eye. A paper published in FEBS Letters, a journal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies, describes how the researchers sifted through thousands of compounds to determine which might block the effects of a key viral enzyme they had previously studied in atomic-level detail.
03 July, 2013
The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) today has granted a non-exclusive sublicense to Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) for the use of MRF’s technologies to generate a novel mouse model for all demyelinating diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). Biogen Idec, an independent biotechnology company with a strong focus on multiple sclerosis therapies, will use the MRF technology in its in-house drug discovery programs. The Myelin Repair Foundation and Biogen Idec will collaborate to improve the licensed technologies to enhance discovery of myelin repair therapeutics and speed clinical development.
02 July, 2013
University of Leicester-led research which has attracted £2.4 million research funding offers new insights into how the genome is regulated by signalling molecules within human cells.
01 July, 2013