Feature Channels: Drugs and Drug Abuse

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In the past two decades, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer treatment, showing promising results against various solid tumors. This study reviews recent developments in ICIs, focusing on new targets like T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains (TIGIT), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-containing protein 3 (TIM-3), and lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3). These targets aim to overcome resistance mechanisms limiting the effectiveness of current therapies, such as anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4. By identifying and developing these new ICIs, researchers hope to improve treatment outcomes and provide new therapeutic options for cancer patients.

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For many years, addiction research has focused on chemical dependencies like drugs and alcohol. However, new phenomena such as video game and social media addictions are not as extensively studied.

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A team led by researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center and a university in South Korea has identified a subset of brain cells whose activation may be partially responsible for the effects of a popular class of weight loss drugs that includes semaglutide and tirzepatide. Their findings, published in Science, could eventually help scientists optimize the efficacy of these drugs, known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs).

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A new scientific review of 148 studies enrolling over 4.3 million adult chronic pain patients treated with prescription opioid painkillers has found that nearly one in ten patients experiences opioid dependence or opioid use disorder and nearly one in three shows symptoms of dependence and opioid use disorder.

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Breaking research shows that rates of cannabis use during pregnancy are far higher than previously thought, a finding that could improve efforts to identify pregnant cannabis users and inform them of potential risks.

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Researchers from University of California San Diego and el Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Mexico have revealed a link between illicit fentanyl use and the transmission of hepatitis C (HCV) among people who inject drugs in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.

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Since 2009, U.S. high school seniors have reported steep declines in medical use, misuse and availability of the three most commonly prescribed and misused controlled substances for teens, a new University of Michigan study found.

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More than 82% of Americans age 50 to 80 take one or more kinds of prescription medication, and 80% of them say they’d be open to stopping one or more of those drugs -- with major differences among people with different health conditions.

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New drug that disrupts two cellular targets would make it much harder for bacteria to evolve resistance

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Improving human quality of life with drug treatments is a complicated issue. Drug certification, including drug safety and reliability, entails a long series of tests and government approvals before the drug is available for anyone to use. Testing drugs is challenged by ethical and biological concerns. Testing new drugs on humans is usually part of a clinical trial and occurs near the end of a drug's path to public use.

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In a study in ACS Central Science, researchers have identified a strategy to design safer opioids. They showed that an experimental opioid, which binds to an unconventional spot in the receptor, suppresses pain in animal models with fewer side effects — most notably those linked to fatal overdoses.

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