Feature Channels: Pharmaceuticals

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For breast cancer patients undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy, avoiding postoperative oral antibiotics does not reduce the risk of infections, reports a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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MD Anderson and Generate:Biomedicines announced a co-development and commercialization agreement to accelerate novel protein therapies using generative AI.

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The April 2023 issue of SLAS Discovery contains six full-length articles and one mini-review covering high-throughput screening (HTS) for protease-inhibiting drugs, high-content phenotypic screening and other life sciences research.

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Most medical AI models in use today are trained to perform one or two specific tasks and have limited utility.

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Researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have now developed a system that directly targets and degrades the SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA genome, reducing infection in mice. The method could be adapted to fight off many viruses, as well as treat various diseases.

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Treating opioid addiction should be much easier now than it was a few years ago, thanks to pandemic-era rule changes that aim to improve access to buprenorphine, a medicine proven to help in recovery. But a new study shows prescriptions and adherence rates have remained flat.

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A study led by the Michigan Psychedelic Center at the University of Michigan Medical School takes a closer look at the neurobiology of psychedelic experiences caused by nitrous oxide, ketamine and LSD.

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UCLA Health investigators are leading a new, six-city trial of injectable buprenorphine for treatment of methamphetamine use disorder in adults who also use opioids.

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As the movement toward “deprescribing” medications among older adults grows, a new poll shows strong interest in this idea, with 80% of adults aged 50 to 80 open to stopping one or more of the prescription medicines they’ve been taking for more than a year, if a health care provider said it was possible. Already, 26% said they have done so in the past two years - though some had done it without talking to a health provider.

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UC San Diego researchers describe a key player in the defense mechanism that safeguards against excessive insulin in the body, which can be as harmful as too little.

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Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Opioids are commonly prescribed as an all-purpose pain killer for patients with the condition

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The drug atogepant may help prevent migraines for people who have had no success with other preventive drugs, according to a preliminary study released April 20, 2023, which will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023. The study involved people with episodic migraine, which is defined as having up to 14 headache days per month with migraine characteristics.

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A new study from researchers at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center reports that heart tissue obtained through organ donations from dogs dying of other causes are a promising platform for testing cancer drug toxicity, offering scientists a new alternative.

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Two doses of an FDA-approved sleeping pill reduced levels of Alzheimer’s proteins in a small study of healthy volunteers led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, although much more work needs to be done to confirm the viability of such an approach.

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Scientists in Melbourne have designed a new type of oral capsule that could mean pain-free delivery of insulin and other protein drugs.

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A drug called teriflunomide may delay first symptoms for people whose magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans show signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) even though they do not yet have symptoms of the disease. The preliminary study, released April 19, 2023, will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting, being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023. Called radiologically isolated syndrome, the condition is diagnosed in people who do not have MS symptoms but who have abnormalities in the brain or spinal cord called lesions, similar to those seen in MS.

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Thanks to a recent upgrade to the medical isotope facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory, actinium-225 (Ac-225), an isotope that shows great promise for treating cancer, can now be produced, purified, and shipped ready for use directly from the Lab. The first shipment left Brookhaven in mid-March.

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Up to 70 percent of patients in ICUs receive antibiotic therapy on any given day, and 30 to 60 percent of those prescriptions are unnecessary. A study in U.S. ICUs reveals that there continues to be an “antibiotic culture,” meaning that the preference for antibiotics is related to their perceived role as “magic bullets.” Findings showed a context-specific culture of antibiotic prescribing most closely associated with the patient load and ICU processes. Antibiotic prescribing was shaped by urgency, hierarchy and uncertainty.

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Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center presented promising findings from multiple clinical trials today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023. The studies, which describe results from a novel FGFR inhibitor and from new PARP/ATR inhibitor combinations, were featured in a plenary session highlighting novel biomarker-driven molecularly targeted therapy trials.

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Based on a large retrospective study, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center experts that many patients with early-stage breast cancer with rare variant histology, or tumor anatomy, benefit from chemotherapy.

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Researchers have developed a drug that undercuts antibiotic resistance

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A prescrição de opioides tem um efeito negativo na função cognitiva em adultos idosos, de acordo com um estudo recente da Mayo Clinic, publicado na revista Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

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El uso de la prescripción de opioides puede tener un efecto negativo en la función cognitiva de los adultos mayores de acuerdo con un estudio reciente de Mayo Clinic publicado en la revista de la Sociedad Estadounidense de Geriatría.

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The first-in-class YAP/TEAD inhibitor VT3989 was well tolerated with durable antitumor responses in patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma and other tumors with NF2 mutations, according to results of a Phase I trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Memory impairment associated with steroid use has been identified in a new study. The University of Bristol-led findings, published in PNAS, show great potential for the identification of drugs that could be adapted to treat certain memory disorders.

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While legal cannabis products in the United States are required to report THC potency levels on their packaging those levels aren't necessarily accurate, which can have important implications for cannabis consumers. According to a new study from the University of Northern Colorado’s Department of Biological Sciences, researchers Mitchell McGlaughlin and Anna Schwabe found that the THC potency values reported on the packaging of cannabis samples from dispensaries across Colorado’s Front Range are substantially over-reported.

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Below are some of the latest headlines in the new Avian Flu channel on Newswise.

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The Linde Family Foundation has made a $10 million gift to launch the Center for Therapeutic Discovery at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This new center will be home to a new team devoted to the development of novel therapeutics for patients with rare and hard-to-treat cancers.

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A new twist on a drug used to treat alcohol use disorder could double up as a treatment for stroke. Called “Carb” for short, this new formulation is designed to treat ischemic stroke, protect brain tissue against injury and minimize the size of a brain infarct.

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Global pharmaceutical company Takeda has agreed to exclusively license a group of small molecules that target tau – a protein in which misfolding and aggregation are believed to be a cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

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A study published April 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) evaluated two drugs that act on the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) as potential treatments for severe COVID-19. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, enters pulmonary and myocardial cells through binding of its spike protein to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). ACE2 is a vital enzyme that controls blood pressure and blood flow to multiple organs, including the lungs, heart and kidneys.

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Kyowa Kirin, Inc., an affiliate of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Kirin, TSE: 4151), a global specialty pharmaceutical company based in Japan, is announcing the appointment of Steve Schaefer as President, North America, effective today, April 11. Mr. Schaefer joins Kyowa Kirin North America (KKNA) after holding key leadership roles at top pharmaceutical companies, including Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company.

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Beyond vaccines, mRNA offers immense potential to fight disease, but targeting the genetic material to specific diseased cells is challenging—requiring a new method. To meet this need, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, with a Global Research Fellowship award from Moderna Inc., are developing a process that essentially uses bubbles to overcome the problem.