Lowly weeds may hold promise for curing host of common health woes
... the 101 plant species used in pharmaceuticals. In drug companies' quests to discover new remedies, weeds ... is derived, Stepp said. Scopolamine, an important drug for treating motion sickness, also is weed-based, as are the cancer medicines vinblastine, for Hodgk...LARGE protein can overcome defects in some types of muscular dystrophy
...f muscular dystrophies. If we could come up with a drug that would stimulate LARGE activity, then we could possibly bypass the defect that's seen in these different forms of muscular dystrophy," Campbell noted. He added that although it might also be possible to utilize gene therapy to introduce the LARG...APP reports Abraxane(TM) is active in breast cancer patients who failed taxol or taxotere
...or Taxotere is an important finding. I think this drug has significant potential to benefit women with br...as very impressed not only by the activity of this drug but also by how well this weekly regimen of ABRAXANE TM was tolerated in the breast cancer patients...Sex-specific differences in gene expression related to drug metabolism and hypertension
...he differentially expressed genes were involved in drug and steroid metabolism and regulation of fluid bal...ining how males and females respond differently to drug treatments and sex-specific propensities for high blood pressure. Interestingly, the adult hypothal...New laboratory model can be used to test new treatments for pediatric eye cancer
...rchers have already tested effective new drugs and drug combinations that will be used in future retinobla...ust be removed if other treatments fail. Effective drug therapy would greatly improve both the chance of survival among these children as well as preserve t...Researchers develop blood test that can detect genetic changes in progressive breast cancer
...s. However, studies have shown that the drug Herceptin (an antibody to HER-2 ) can treat tumor... gene and reside on the cancer cells' surface. The drug neutralizes their effect with far fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy. By ...OneWorld Health CEO outlines mutually beneficial collaborations between industry, nonprofits at BIO
..., 2004 The economics and traditional structure of drug development are shifting in ways that could lead t...pany's proven record of collaboration that enables drug companies to partner without compromising their profitability goals. "The benefits of such collabor...CSIRO research in greatest biotech show on earth
...lopment cutting edge structural biology, rational drug design, and protein engineering Therapeutic Delivery better, more efficient ways to speed drugs to their targets Gene Silencing and related techniques powerful new gene technologies to enhance therapies and control plant and animal breedin...Researchers identify two potential protein targets for new drug therapies for pancreatic cancer
...at may be potential targets for new, more specific drug therapies against this deadly disease. Medical oncologist Steven J. Cohen, M.D., presented the study today at the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans. Cohen and his colleagues have identified increased l...Researchers identify genetic markers to predict response to chemotherapy for colorectal cancer
...ide effects from irinotecan, a common chemotherapy drug for colorectal cancer. Leslie E. Carlini, Ph.D....ow well colorectal cancer patients respond to this drug and how severe side effects will be," Carlini said. To see how genetic variations affected res...Novel therapeutic bortezomib moves to phase II trial in lung cancer patients
...l molecularly targeted agent bortezomib, the first drug in its class, proved well-tolerated and showed promising efficacy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to phase I trial results reported Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists. The t...When combining new oral anti-cancer agents with standard chemotherapy, timing may be crucial
... giving both drugs simultaneously or giving either drug alone" Gumerlock said. "And that proved to be true." Docetaxel, a standard first-line chemotherapy drug for non-small cell lung cancer, works in the same way other standard chemotherapy agents do: by kill...Lung cancer patients in Japan, United States react differently to the same chemotherapy regimen
... patients are likely due to genetic differences in drug metabolism, an area of science known as pharmacogenomics. Recent research has identified specific genes involved in paclitaxel metabolism, and these genes may prove different from one ethnic group to another. "These findings underscore both the impor...Tiny tango: Device sorts microscopic particles with speed and precision
...her." In pharmaceuticals, the size of the drug particles in a capsule can play a critical role in how quickly the drug is absorbed and excreted in the body, noted Sturm. "You can use advanced chemical engineering method...Gene expression ratio identifies risk of recurrence in breast cancer patients receiving tamoxifen
...take tamoxifen, making it the most frequently used drug of this class. The MGH and Arcturus research teams have collaborated for several years on studies of the molecular characteristics of breast tumors. Last year they published a study showing that advanced analysis technologies that identify which ge...Tamoxifen stimulates breast cancer growth following alteration of estrogen receptor
...estrogen receptor. The most common of these is the drug tamoxifen. However, only about half of ER+ breast cancers successfully respond to treatment with tamoxifen, while the other half are resistant. When tamoxifen is used in advanced disease, resistance will eventually arise in all tumors, even if they w...Biologists discover nerve activity, not just genetics controls kinds of neurotransmitters produced
...tter production could have advantages over current drug treatments and electroconvulsive therapy--stimulation of the whole brain with electric current," notes Spitzer. "These treatments work for many patients, but both treat the entire brain in an imprecise way and have side effects." The first author...When blood can't get to brain, special CT scan helps
... scan is done after patients receive a dose of the drug acetazolamide to dilate their blood vessels and maximize flow. Those patients whose vessels don't dilate in response to acetazolamide, because they're already maximally dilated and letting as much blood through as they can, are most likely to benefit...Drug that cuts off tumor's blood supply extends lives of colorectal cancer patients
A drug designed to cut off a tumor's blood supply, when paired with a chemotherapy combination, resulted in significant improvement in survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, the first time in decades that survival times have been extended i...Researchers establish first molecular link between eating and aging
... without the actual dieting. "If we could make a drug that would bind to Sirt1 and fool the body into th...," he said, describing a sort of fountain-of-youth drug that he hopes to create. How would such a drug work? Would it require vigorous exercise? Might ther...