Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
UMass Amherst Researchers Test a Drug-Exercise Program Designed to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
In continuation of my update on Metformin...
Kinesiology researcher Barry Braun of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues recently reported unexpected results of a study suggesting that exercise and one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for diabetes, metformin, each improves insulin resistance when used alone, but when used together, metformin blunted the full effect of a 12-week exercise program in pre-diabetic men and women.
Ref : http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/newsreleases/articles/142505.php
Friday, December 2, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
European Commission approves Vyndaqel® (tafamidis) for the treatment of Transthyretin Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP)
We know that, Tafamidis (see structure) or Vyndaqel was discovered in the Jeffery W. Kelly Laboratory
at The Scripps Research Institute using a structure-based drug design
strategy
and was developed at FoldRx pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company
led by Richard Labaudiniere that was acquired by Pfizer in 2010.
Tafamidis or Vyndaqel functions by kinetic stabilization of the correctly folded tetrameric form of the transthyretin (TTR) protein. In patients with FAP, this protein dissociates in a process that is rate limiting for aggregation including amyloid fibril formation, causing neurodegeneration and failure of the autonomic nervous system and/or the peripheral nervous system and/or the heart.
Now, European Commission has approved Vyndaqel®
(tafamidis) for the treatment of Transthyretin Familial Amyloid
Polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP) in adult patients with stage 1 symptomatic
polyneuropathy.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
HSC NEWS - Bat plant could give some cancers a devil of a time
In a new study published this month in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers with The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have pinpointed the cancer-fighting potential in the bat plant, or Tacca chantrieri......
HSC NEWS - Bat plant could give some cancers a devil of a time
Labels:
anticancer activity,
bat plant,
or Tacca chantrieri.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
FDA Approves Intermezzo.....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Intermezzo
(zolpidem tartrate sublingual tablets) for use as needed to treat
insomnia characterized by middle-of-the-night waking followed by
difficulty returning to sleep.
This is the first time the FDA has approved a drug for this condition.
Intermezzo should only be used when a person has at least four hours of
bedtime remaining. It should not be taken if alcohol has been consumed
or with any other sleep aid....
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Coffee may protect against womb cancer: Study
In continuation of my update on the benefits of coffee
A new study shows that regular intake of coffee may significantly lower risk for endometrial or womb cancer.
For
the study the researchers looked at coffee consumption and endometrial
cancer risk in more than 67,000 women aged between 34 and 59 enrolled in
the long-running Nurses' Health Study. The researchers found that women
who took more than four cups of coffee a day over a 26-year period were
25 percent less likely to get the cancer. Women who drank two to three
cups a day were 7 percent less likely to get it. Drinking less than four
cups a day was not associated with reduced risk. Furthermore drinking
tea did not reduce the risk. Additionally drinking more than two cups of
decaffeinated coffee a day was tied to a 22 percent reduced risk for
endometrial cancer.
The benefit wasn't a complete surprise, since coffee has been shown to lower estrogen and insulin levels, and higher levels of these hormones have been associated with an increased risk of endometrial cancer. But the new findings do help to clarify how obesity, estrogen and coffee might interact in triggering tumors.
“It would be premature to make a recommendation that women drink coffee to lower their endometrial cancer risk,” study author Dr. Edward Giovannucci, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health...
Ref : http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/10/03/1055-9965.EPI-11-0766.abstract?sid=d8d229ed-e4b4-4b7a-bc6a-f3f86cba4c0e
Labels:
Anticancer,
coffee,
Drug Discovery
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Cisplatin anti-cancer drug binds pervasively to RNA....
In continuation of my update on Cisplatin.....
An anti-cancer drug used extensively in chemotherapy binds pervasively to RNA -- up to 20-fold more than it does to DNA, a surprise finding that suggests new targeting approaches might be useful, according to University of Oregon researchers, lead by Victoria J. DeRose
Ref : http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2011/11/cancer-drug-cisplatin-found-bind-glue-cellular-rna
Labels:
anticancer activity,
cisplatin,
DNA,
Drug Discovery,
RNA
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Old drugs find new target for treating brain tumor
In continuation of erlotinib ................................
Old drugs find new target for treating brain tumor
Labels:
anticancer activity,
Drug Discovery,
Erlotinib
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Researchers discover new class of antimalarial compounds...
Researchers have discovered a group of chemical compounds that might one day be developed into drugs that can treat malaria infection in both the liver and the bloodstream. The study, which appears in the Nov. 18 issue of Science, was led by Elizabeth A. Winzeler, Ph.D., of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and was partially funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
By screening more than 4,000 chemical compounds that had previously shown activity against blood-stage Plasmodium, the investigators searched for a compound that would also inhibit liver-stage parasites and whose protein structure would allow the modification necessary for future drug development. They found that a group of three related compounds, known collectively as the imidazolopiperazine (IP) cluster, fit these criteria. In addition, strains of Plasmodium that had acquired resistance to other malaria drugs were susceptible to the IP cluster.
Using the IP cluster as a foundation, the researchers designed a drug candidate, GNF179, that reduced levels of one Plasmodium species by 99.7 percent and extended survival by an average of 19 days when tested in malaria-infected mice. By examining infected cells, the researchers confirmed that GNF179 (see the structure) was active in the liver stage of infection. Rresearchers note that while additional studies will be needed to fully understand the drug's mechanism of action and its specific targets within the liver, this study provides a potential starting point for developing new dual-stage antimalarial drugs.....
Labels:
antimalarial,
Drug Discovery,
GNF179
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)