Pharmacology News and Research

Latest Pharmacology News and Research

Too many medications associated with increased risk of admissions for patients with multiple conditions

Patients with a single illness who take many drugs have an increased risk of being admitted to hospital, but for patients with multiple conditions, taking many medicines is now associated with a near-normal risk of admission. This is the key finding of work published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

16 Jan 2014

Research opens door to new direction of PAH treatment

The development of new, more effective vasodilators to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension has been hampered because of their systemic toxicity and adverse side effects. An international team of investigators seeking to surmount these problems and increase drug efficacy have determined that a vascular homing peptide can selectively target hypertensive pulmonary arteries to boost the pulmonary but not systemic effects of vasodilators. Importantly for potential clinical use, this peptide retains its activity when given sublingually. The results using a rat model of PAH are published in the American Journal of Pathology.

8 Jan 2014

FDA accepts NPS Pharmaceuticals' Natpara BLA for review

NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company pioneering and delivering therapies that transform the lives of patients with rare diseases worldwide, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted and filed for review the company's Biologics License Application for Natpara (recombinant human parathyroid hormone 1-84, (rhPTH[1-84])) for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism.

7 Jan 2014

Loyola's Surgery Department ranked 18th in NIH medical school funding in 2013

The Surgery Department of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine ranked 18th in the nation in National Institutes of Health medical school funding in 2013, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

7 Jan 2014

e-Therapeutics announces continuation of ETS2101 phase I trial in brain cancer

e-Therapeutics plc today announces that the investigator-led phase I trial of ETS2101 in brain cancer will continue into 2014. Five dose escalation steps have been completed without any drug-related serious adverse events and the investigator therefore intends to enrol further patients at higher dose levels.

7 Jan 2014

Study suggests new target for drugs to treat head and neck tumors

The increased activation of a key oncogene in head and neck cancers could be the result of mutation and dysfunction of regulatory proteins that are supposed to keep the gene, which has the potential to cause cancer, in check, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

7 Jan 2014

New ways to treat substance abuse, neurological diseases and mental illnesses

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have found a way to change alcohol drinking behavior in rodents, using the emerging technique of optogenetics, which uses light to stimulate neurons.

7 Jan 2014

USAMRMC to develop strategic research plan that identifies critical research priority areas in TBI

The U.S. Department of Defense funds more than 500 neurotrauma research projects totaling over $700 million. Yet there remains a large unmet medical need for effective treatments of traumatic brain injury (TBI), a major cause of disability and mortality.

6 Jan 2014

Discovery opens new pathways for treatment of toxoplasmosis and malaria

A newly identified protein and other proteins it interacts with could become effective targets for new drugs to control the parasite that cause toxoplasmosis, researchers led by investigators at Indiana University School of Medicine have reported.

3 Jan 2014

Chinese herbal medicine effective at alleviating acute inflammatory and nerve pain

A compound derived from a traditional Chinese herbal medicine has been found effective at alleviating pain, pointing the way to a new nonaddictive analgesic for acute inflammatory and nerve pain, according to UC Irvine pharmacology researchers.

3 Jan 2014

Research confirms superior antitumor activity of novel anticancer agent FL118

A team led by Fengzhi Li, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute has reported significant new findings regarding the chemical structure of the novel anticancer agent FL118. The research, which included comparative analysis of the agent and several similar compounds, confirms the broad, superior antitumor activity of FL118 and suggests promising directions for further studies.

2 Jan 2014

Innovative therapy offers new hope to breast cancer patients

A novel breast-cancer therapy that partially reverses the cancerous state in cultured breast tumor cells and prevents cancer development in mice, could one day provide a new way to treat early stages of the disease without resorting to surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, a multi-institutional team led by researchers from the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported January 1 in Science Translational Medicine.

2 Jan 2014

Researchers explore ways to overcome transplant rejection

Given that 10.5 % of patients who receive a transplant reject the new organ, researchers at the Center of Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav) are working in the design of a tool capable of preventing this problem.

27 Dec 2013

MitoQ antioxidant reverses MS-like disease in animal

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered that an antioxidant designed more than a dozen years ago to fight damage within human cells significantly helps symptoms in mice that have a multiple sclerosis-like disease.

27 Dec 2013

Reflux disease diagnosis: an interview with Professor Peter Dettmar, Managing Director of RD Biomed Limited

Generally speaking, reflux has been a major chronic issue for probably the last 40 or 50 years. When you look at the global population, depending on which country we're talking about, around 20% to 40% of individuals have reflux disease within their populations.

23 Dec 2013

GSK team wins Drug Discovery of Year award for developing trametinib for malignant melanoma

The British Pharmacological Society proudly announces that its Drug Discovery of the Year award has been won by the team at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) responsible for the development of trametinib - a new treatment for malignant melanoma (a type of skin cancer).

19 Dec 2013

Endocrine Society issues scientific statement on health consequences of performance-enhancing drugs

A new Scientific Statement issued today by The Endocrine Society represents a comprehensive evaluation of available information on the prevalence and medical consequences of the use of performance-enhancing drugs. The statement highlights the clinical pharmacology, adverse effects and detection of many substances often classified as PEDs, identifies gaps in knowledge and aims to focus the attention of the medical community and policymakers on PED use as an important public health problem.

18 Dec 2013

Coronation street actress meets scientists working on pancreatic cancer

Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays pancreatic cancer patient Hayley Cropper, has visited The University of Manchester on a fact-finding mission to look at work being done by scientists to fight the disease.

17 Dec 2013

Two existing drugs show promise as potential treatments for cervical cancer

Two existing drugs - one the active ingredient in an anti-fungal medication and the other now used to control iron levels in the blood - both show promise as potential treatments for cervical cancer, according to newly published research by scientists at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

17 Dec 2013

Researchers gain better understanding of neurochemical basis of addiction with optogenetics

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers are gaining a better understanding of the neurochemical basis of addiction with a new technology called optogenetics.

16 Dec 2013