First of all, I hope that you all had a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year and now it is back to the exciting business of drug discovery. Best of luck and success in 2022 with all your research and development. I imagine that everyone is now getting used to a “more normal” way of life; slowly I am seeing change as conferences seem to be getting back to a more personal experience. I imagine that in the coming year I will see more of you at these events. As you can see, this month’s offerings from recent Drug Discovery Today publications come under the broad category of “therapeutics”. This is a convenient way for me to ease myself back into work after the excesses of the festive period. That notwithstanding, the three, free to access, articles are covering some very interesting developments in the area, which I will endeavour to outline below.
The first article, “Advances in the development of entry inhibitors for sialic-acid-targeting viruses” by Rick Heida, Yoshita C. Bhide, Matteo Gasbarri, Özgün Kocabiyik, Francesco Stellacci, Anke L.W. Huckriede, Wouter L.J. Hinrichs and Henderik W. Frijlink looks at the development of drugs that may combat viral illness by interfering with attachment and entry into the cell. They explain that although viruses may use particular host receptors to facilitate binding and entry, some use sialic acid as a common binding site. The review covers aspects of entry inhibitors based for those sialic acid-targeting viruses. This approach could potentially represent a prospect for a broad spectrum approach for the treatment of viruses of this class.
The next article covers a completely different condition and is by Batoul Farran and Ganji Purnachandra Nagaraju of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA,30322, USA, entitled: “Exosomes as therapeutic solutions for pancreatic cancer”. This paper examines an approach to the treatment of pancreatic cancer (PC), for which there still exists a massive unmet medical need. They review the role of PC-derived exosomes in the natural history of disease development by their ability to transport molecules essential for the aetiogenesis and progression of the disease to recipient cells in the tumor environment. In addition, they discuss the potential of such exosomes as diagnostic tools and potential therapeutic targets.
And so to the last of the offerings from this first newsletter of 2022 is the work of Tania Nandi, Sai Pradyuth, Arihant Kumar Singh, Deepak Chitkara and Anupama Mittal of the Department of Pharmacy, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS PILANI), Pilani, Rajasthan, 333031, India, entitled: “Therapeutic agents for targeting desmoplasia: current status and emerging trends”. They highlight how desmoplasia represents a real problem in the treatment of various cancers, in that it can hinder chemotherapy via a number of ways, one of which is an increase interstitial fluid pressure that can produce a physical barrier to the diffusion of drugs to the tumors. The authors indicate research efforts have explored how small molecular weight drugs, genes and peptides can potentially be used to ameliorate the effects of desmoplasia. They also point out some preliminary successes of repurposed drugs like pentoxifylline, aspirin and metformin as anti-desmoplastic agents in clinical trials as adjuncts in chemotherapy.
Steve Carney was born in Liverpool, England and studied Biochemistry at Liverpool University, obtaining a BSc.(Hons) and then read for a PhD on the Biochemistry and Pathology of Connective Tissue Diseases in Manchester University, in the Departments of Medical Biochemistry and Histopathology. On completion of his PhD, he moved to the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, London, where he worked with Professor Helen Muir FRS and Professor Tim Hardingham, on the biochemistry of experimental Osteoarthritis. He joined Eli Lilly and Co. and held a number of positions in Biology R&D, initially in the Connective Tissue Department, but latterly in the Neuroscience Department. He left Lilly to take up his present position as Managing Editor, Drug Discovery Today, at Elsevier. Currently, he also holds an honorary lectureship in Drug Discovery at the University of Surrey, UK. He has authored over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals, written several book chapters and has held a number of patents.