Pharmacology News and Research

Latest Pharmacology News and Research

Study suggests new approaches to fighting diseases using the power of illusion

Magic tricks work because they take advantage of the brain's sensory assumptions, tricking audiences into seeing phantoms or overlooking sleights of hand. Now a team of UC San Francisco researchers has discovered that even brainless single-celled yeast have sensory biases that can be hacked by a carefully engineered illusion, a finding that could be used to develop new approaches to fighting diseases such as cancer.

20 Nov 2015

Simple blood test may predict speed of recovery from postoperative pain and dysfunction

A simple blood test taken before surgery may predict how quickly patients recover from their procedure, suggests a new study in the December issue of Anesthesiology, the official medical journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

20 Nov 2015

Scientists identify way to sensitize drug-resistant glioblastoma cells to chemotherapy

Scientists from the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and clinicians from Carilion Clinic have discovered how to sensitize drug-resistant human glioblastoma cells to chemotherapy.

20 Nov 2015

Sildenafil drug improves insulin sensitivity in people at risk for diabetes

The drug sildenafil, sold as Viagra and other brand names, improves insulin sensitivity in people at risk for diabetes, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported today.

19 Nov 2015

UCLA researchers find new way to reduce ascites with minimal side effects

Women who have ovarian cancer often develop a condition called ascites, which is a buildup of fluids in the abdomen. The most common treatment for ascites is puncturing the abdomen and manually draining the fluid, which is painful and risky and must be repeated every few weeks.

18 Nov 2015

Research shows how scientists altered stem cells, triggered bone growth

Imagine you have a bone fracture or a hip replacement, and you need bone to form, but you heal slowly - a common fact of life for older people. Instead of forming bone, you could form fat. Researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine may have found a way to tip the scale in favor of bone formation. They used cytochalasin D, a naturally occurring substance found in mold, as a proxy to alter gene expression in the nuclei of mesenchymal stem cells to force them to become osteoblasts (bone cells).

17 Nov 2015

Medicines do not degrade after being stored in space, shows study

The results of an opportunistic, pilot-scale study led by Virginia Wotring of the Center for Space Medicine and Department of Pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine in the US suggest that medication degradation on the International Space Station (ISS) does not differ from what is typically seen on Earth.

11 Nov 2015

PAREXEL expands market access and clinical evidence services

PAREXEL International Corporation, a leading global biopharmaceutical services provider, today announced expanded evidence-based services for biopharmaceutical products.

10 Nov 2015

Addressing quality of life needs in prostate cancer: an interview with Professor Louis Denis

Modern patient-directed management is based on optimal, individual medical treatment and holistic personalised patient-centred care. This is certainly true in prostate cancer where most patients are over 60 years of age. They face a negative physical and functional impact from the diagnosis as well as from the treatment with emotional and social challenges.

4 Nov 2015

Advanced pain management fellowship prepares CRNAs to meet needs of Americans with chronic pain

As the first program of its kind in the United States, an advanced pain management fellowship prepares Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) with the pain management skills necessary to meet the needs of Americans with chronic pain, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.

4 Nov 2015

Scientists propose that Alzheimer's disease should be treated separately

Deciphering the mechanism that underlies the development of Alzheimer's disease in certain families but not in others, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Medicine have proposed that the malady is actually a collection of diseases that probably should be treated with a variety of different approaches.

4 Nov 2015

New computational method helps predict adverse drug reaction better than traditional computing methods

A new integrated computational method helps predicting adverse drug reaction--which are often lethal--more reliably than with traditional computing methods. This improved ability to foresee the possible adverse effects of drugs may entail saving many lives in the future.

4 Nov 2015

Denator forms a new Scientific Advisory Board

Denator AB has announced that a new external expert advisory board has been formed. Karsten Fjärstedt, recently appointed as CEO comments, “It is a great honor for me to be entrusted to lead Denator forward in this new phase of development. With a pipeline of new exciting business opportunities and a strong Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) I am looking forward to realizing the full potential of the company technology”.

3 Nov 2015

Patients with Down syndrome face additional challenge of early-onset dementia

Individuals with Down syndrome who survive into adulthood face the additional challenge of early-onset dementia, in which toxic amyloid plaques build up in the brain. The condition is strikingly similar to Alzheimer's disease, and as new work led by researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University shows, dementia in Down syndrome involves defects in a regulatory enzyme known as γ-secretase activating protein (GSAP), which also happens to malfunction in Alzheimer's disease.

3 Nov 2015

New online tool may allow researchers explore formation of hair follicles

A new online database will empower researchers exploring how hair follicles and the surrounding skin develop, according to an article published recently in the journal Developmental Cell. The work is central to understanding the interactions between stem cells and their environment - or "niche cells" - during fetal development, and will specifically facilitate future attempts to make skin grafts with functional hair follicles or to regenerate lost hair in patients.

30 Oct 2015

New magnetic field delivery method could help treat traumatic brain injury

Treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) using stem cell therapy is an important area of current research. However, injecting stem cells into the central nervous system has serious drawbacks, including intracranial hemorrhage and cells failing to reach TBI-affected areas of the brain.

30 Oct 2015

New research shows that using e-cigarettes related to problematic drinking

Using e-cigarettes is related to problematic drinking, according to new research published in Addictive Behaviors. In a study involving around 1400 people, researchers also found that more women than men use e-cigarettes socially, opposite to patterns seen in regular cigarette smoking.

29 Oct 2015

IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib) wins Prix Galien USA 2015 Award in Best Pharmaceutical Agent category

Today, IMBRUVICA (ibrutinib) was awarded the prestigious Prix Galien USA 2015 Award in the category of Best Pharmaceutical Agent. The Prix Galien Award is considered to be the industry's highest accolade and recognizes the vital technical, scientific and clinical research skills necessary to develop medicines.

28 Oct 2015

Breakthrough research suggests that female sex hormone may save lives on the battlefield

Breakthrough research suggests a female sex hormone may be the key to saving lives on the battlefield, where between 2001 and 2011 more than 80 percent of potentially preventable U.S. war injury deaths resulted from blood loss.

22 Oct 2015

UF Health researcher reveals how betel nut's psychoactive chemical works in the brain

For hundreds of millions of people around the world, chewing betel nut produces a cheap, quick high but also raises the risk of addiction and oral cancer. Now, new findings by a University of Florida Health researcher reveal how the nut's psychoactive chemical works in the brain and suggest that an addiction treatment may already exist.

22 Oct 2015