Pharmaceuticals

A new study has outlined a new framework that researchers say would improve predictive power of genetics to determine how well a patient would respond to commonly prescribed medications as well as the severity of any side effects.

Treatment for more advanced and difficult-to-treat head and neck cancers can be improved with the addition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), the same ingredient used in children's glue. Researchers found that combining PVA with a boron-containing compound, D-BPA, improved the effects of a type of radiation therapy for cancer, compared to currently clinically used drugs. The PVA made the drug more selective of tumor cells and prolonged drug retention, helping to spare healthy cells from unnecessary radiation damage.

Bacteria modify their ribosomes when exposed to widely used antibiotics, according to new research. The modified ribosomes have changes specifically in the regions where antibiotics latch on to and halt protein production. The study found this made the bacteria more resistant to the drugs. The subtle changes might be enough to alter the binding site of drug targets and constitute a possible new mechanism of antibiotic resistance.

Tirzepatide, a new injectable weight-loss drug, reduced the risk of diabetes in patients with obesity and prediabetes by more than 90% over a three-year period, compared with placebo, according to the results of a new study.

Tamoxifen is a common and important treatment to prevent breast cancer from recurring. A new study shows that variation in a patient's gut microbiome can impact how effective the treatment is.

Researchers explore how established agricultural pest management strategies could be adapted to address cancer therapy. The pioneering method opens new possibilities for controlling drug resistance and improving patient survival.

Drug discovery researchers have found that a natural fat molecule called 'lipoxin A4' (LXA4) could significantly reduce inflammation and improve function for diabetic hearts.

In a groundbreaking new study scientists have revealed that the widely prescribed Parkinson's disease drug entacapone significantly disrupts the human gut microbiome by inducing iron deficiency. The study, provides new insights into the often-overlooked impact of human-targeted drugs on the microbial communities that play a critical role in human health.

Weight-loss and diabetes drug tirzepatide can reduce the risk of death or worsening heart failure for patients with obesity and heart failure with preserved pump function, new research reveals.

Researchers have led a clinical trial of a drug that mimics the effects of alcohol in more than 100 patients with laryngeal dystonia, a neurological condition that causes involuntary muscle spasms in the larynx and can have debilitating impacts on a person's voice. The trial was inspired by patient reports that their symptoms improved after consuming alcoholic beverages.

Inspired by the jets of water that squids use to propel themselves through the ocean, a team developed an ingestible capsule that releases a burst of drugs directly into the lining of the stomach or other organs of the digestive tract.

Researchers shrink gastrointestinal tumors in mice using a yeast probiotic to deliver immunotherapy to the gut, offering a potentially novel strategy to target hard-to-reach gut cancers.

Researchers found a molecule that can both help the intestines to heal after damage and suppress tumour growth in colorectal cancer. The discovery could lead to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and cancer.

Common cardiovascular drugs are linked to a lower risk of dementia in older age, according to a new study.

A research article shows that Eradivir's patent-pending antiviral therapeutic called EV25 reduces lung viral loads of advanced-stage influenza in preclinical studies quicker and more effectively than currently available therapies.

A promising daily tablet is effective at increasing height and improving proportional limb growth in children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, according to a new study. And the findings could spare these children from needing to have a daily injection to boost growth.

Fampridine is currently used to improve walking ability in multiple sclerosis. A new study shows that it could also help individuals with reduced working memory, as seen in mental health conditions like schizophrenia or depression.

To stem the surging antibiotic resistance public health crisis, scientists seek solutions inside the mechanics of bacterial infection. A new study has found a vulnerability related to magnesium availability. This limitation potentially could be exploited to stop the spread of antibiotic resistance.

Children born to mothers who take antiseizure medications to manage seizures and psychiatric conditions during pregnancy may face increased risks of neurodevelopmental conditions, according to new research.

Researchers have identified a potential treatment for Sandhoff and Tay-Sachs diseases -- two rare, often fatal lysosomal storage disorders that cause progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. After years of investigating the diseases' underlying mechanisms, the research team has identified an existing FDA-approved drug that could significantly improve quality of life for affected patients and their families.

A new drug strategy that regulates the tumor immune microenvironment may transform a tumor that resists immunotherapy into a susceptible one, according to a new study.

A new study has found highly vulnerable weakness in drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, offering a new way to kill them.

A new study uncovers vulnerabilities in drug-resistant TB, offering hope for improved treatments.

A team of scientists has used a novel approach to identify protein degraders that target Pin1, a protein involved in pancreatic cancer development.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) loaded with customizable anti-cancer antisense oligonucleotides suppressed cancer growth.

All patients who have had a heart attack are typically treated using beta blockers. According to a recent study, this drug is unlikely to be needed for those heart patients who have a normal pumping ability. Now a sub-study shows that there is also a risk that these patients will become depressed by the treatment.

Researchers have developed a new form of precision medicine, an antibody, with the potential to treat several types of cancer. Researchers have managed to combine three different functions in the antibody, which together strongly amplify the effect of T cells on the cancer tumor.

A team has developed a large-scale drug screening technique that can track target molecule behavior within cells. The researchers verified their technique by testing the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a known target for cancer drugs. Their drug screening resulted in the identification of the known drugs, as well as others that were not previously known to affect EGFR. This new method can potentially help develop new drugs and repurpose existing drugs.

A drug commonly used to treat glaucoma has been shown in zebrafish and mice to protect against the build-up in the brain of the protein tau, which causes various forms of dementia and is implicated in Alzheimer's disease.

Reports of drug-related supply-chain issues were 40 percent less likely to result in drug shortages in Canada versus the United States, according to a new study.

The amount of money people pay out-of-pocket for branded drugs to treat neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease continues to rise, especially for MS drugs, according to a new study. The study found that average out-of-pocket costs for drugs for MS increased by 217% over a nine-year period.

An international research team has investigated how nanoplastic particles deposited in the body affect the effectiveness of antibiotics. The study showed that the plastic particles not only impair the effect of the drugs, but could also promote the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The advanced drug testing system screens multiple potential therapies simultaneously in beating heart cells.

Researchers have discovered a way that ovarian cancer tumors manipulate their environment to resist immunotherapy and identified a drug target that could overcome that resistance. The study used a cutting-edge spatial genomics technology and preclinical animal models, with tumor specimens from ovarian cancer patients further validating the findings. They found that ovarian cancer cells produce a molecule called Interleukin-4 (IL-4), which is typically associated with asthma and the skin condition eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis. The study went on to find that the cancer cells used IL-4 to create a protective environment that kept away killer immune cells, making the tumors resistant to immunotherapy. A drug, dupilumab, which blocks IL-4's activity, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is already used to treat asthma and eczema. This new study suggests dupilumab or similar drugs could be repurposed to enhance immunotherapy for ovarian cancer.

A newly described stage of a lymph node-like structure seen in liver tumors after presurgical immunotherapy may be vital to successfully treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to a new study.

Scientists say mifepristone, used in cancer and reproductive care, could pave the way for anti-aging treatments.

Scientists have designed a publicly-available software and web database to break down barriers to identifying key protein-protein interactions to treat with medication. The computational tool is called PIONEER (Protein-protein InteractiOn iNtErfacE pRediction). Researchers demonstrated PIONEER's utility by identifying potential drug targets for dozens of cancers and other complex diseases.

Researchers have developed a new technology that can hold an entire course of antibiotics in one tiny dose and deliver on demand just the right amount of medication that a particular patient needs to fight an infection.

Using a few zaps of electricity to the skin, researchers can stop bacterial infections without using any drugs. For the first time, researchers designed a skin patch that uses imperceptible electric currents to control microbes.

Chemists have synthesized so-called heteroatom-substituted cage-like 3D molecules. The innovative structures are created by precisely inserting a triatomic unit into the strained ring of a reaction partner. They could help address key challenges in drug design by serving as more stable alternatives to traditional, flat, aromatic rings.

People with opioid use disorder in British Columbia who received methadone had a 37- to 40-percent lower rate of treatment discontinuation compared with those who received buprenorphine/naloxone. The new research evaluated the risk of treatment discontinuation and mortality in people prescribed opioid agonist treatment (OAT) over a 10-year period.

Research provides evidence that a drug used to slow the progression of the disease ALS shows promise in suppressing the self-renewing cancerous stem cells that challenge the present standards of care for these lethal grade 4 brain tumours.

A group of scientists say it's time to think differently about how to define and treat diseases such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis.

For people with ischemic stroke, treatment with the clot-busting drug tenecteplase is associated with a slightly higher likelihood of an excellent recovery and reduced disability three months later than the drug alteplase, according to a meta-analysis. Researchers found that the likelihood of good recovery was similar between the two treatments.

Innovative application of an existing drug offers promising alternative treatment to traditional chemotherapy for patients with appendix cancer.

Novel chemical compounds from a fungus could provide new perspectives for treating colorectal cancer, one of the most common and deadliest cancers worldwide. Researchers have reported on the isolation and characterization of a previously unknown class of metabolites (terpene-nonadride heterodimers). One of these compounds effectively kills colorectal cancer cells by attacking the enzyme DCTPP1, which thus may serve as a potential biomarker for colorectal cancer and a therapeutic target.

Use of a lifesaving drug to reverse opioid drug overdoses is growing, but not fast enough.

Medicare could save up to 74% of the money lost from discarded Alzheimer's drug lecanemab by the simple introduction of a new vial size that would reduce the amount of unused medication that is thrown away. As it is, nearly 6% of the medication is discarded, costing Medicare $1,600 per patient per year.

Researchers have successfully develop single-atom editing technology that maximizes drug efficacy.

Skin pigmentation may act as a 'sponge' for some medications, potentially influencing the speed with which active drugs reach their intended targets, a pair of scientists report.

Chemists have developed a new chemical reaction that will allow researchers to synthesize selectively the left-handed or right-handed versions of 'mirror molecules' found in nature and assess them for potential use against cancer, infection, depression, inflammation and a host of other conditions.

New research has identified a novel series of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors that may lead to potential new COVID-19 treatments that, according to preclinical testing, effectively inhibits COVID-19 and synergizes with existing anti-COVID therapies.

Doctors have long believed the cancer drug 5-fluorouracil works by damaging the building blocks of DNA, but researchers have now found that in certain cancers, it kills cells by interfering with RNA synthesis. The findings could help researchers design better drug combinations for colon and gastrointestinal cancers.

An estimated one in five Americans live with chronic pain and current treatment options leave much to be desired. Scientists are now using artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery in advanced pain management. The team's deep-learning framework identified multiple gut microbiome-derived metabolites and FDA-approved drugs that can be repurposed to select non-addictive, non-opioid options to treat chronic pain.

Mathematicians have developed a recipe for upgrading quantum computers to simulate complex quantum systems, such as molecules. Their discovery brings us closer to being able to predict how new drugs will behave within our bodies and has the potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical development.

A new study identified that a semi-synthetic compound can be derived from natural compounds and shows potent activity against tuberculosis (TB), including multi-drug resistant TB.

Some proteins in the human body are easy to block with a drug; they have an obvious spot in their structure where a drug can fit, like a key in a lock. But other proteins are more difficult to target, with no clear drug-binding sites. To design a drug that blocks a cancer-related protein, scientists took a hint from the protein's paralog, or 'twin.' Using innovative chemical biology methods, the scientists pinpointed a druggable site on the paralog, and then used that knowledge to characterize drugs that bound to a similar -- but more difficult to detect -- spot on its twin. Ultimately, they found drugs that only bound to the protein of interest and not its highly similar sibling.

A therapy showing promise to help control tuberculosis does not interfere with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), according to new research.

Researchers have made a significant step towards enabling women with epilepsy safer access to a common and highly effective anti-seizure medication. Sodium Valproate or valproic acid is widely prescribed for epilepsy and certain mental health conditions, but is considered harmful to use during pregnancy because of links to spinal cord defects and other complications for newborns. A team of organoid experts have identified a drug that may nullify the dangerous side effects.

Scientists have uncovered how the parasite that causes malaria orchestrates their cell division -- which is key in enabling the parasite to transmit this deadly disease. They show how they have uncovered key regulators of how malaria parasites manage their cell division.