Pharmacology

The ability to accurately recall the shapes and spatial relationships of objects has been shown to be reduced by long-term use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS), according to a recent paper.  The researchers used a variety of tests to determine whether AAS users developed cognitive defects due to their admitted history of abuse. Their study looked at 44 individuals whose ages ranged from 29-55, with 31 having used AAS for an average of seven years. Each participant was asked to complete five cognitive tests that assessed a wide range of brain functions, including memory for shapes…

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc announced that data from the largest safety trial to date of patients treated with Erwinaze® (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi) based on results of a compassionate use protocol in patients who received Erwinaze as part of a multi-agent chemotherapeutic regimen for acute lymphoblastic leukemia who developed a hypersensitivity to E.coli-derived asparaginase. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia affects approximately 6,000 Americans, 60 percent of whom are children. ALL is the most common form of childhood cancer, with the peak incidence between two and five years of age. ALL…

A survey published in Archives of Pediatrics&Adolescent Medicine  finds that 14.2 percent of teenage children with any mental disorder have been treated with a psychotropic medication in the last 12 months, which researchers suggest challenges concerns about widespread overmedication and misuse of psychotropic medications among young people in the U.S. Concern has been raised about inappropriate prescribing of psychotropic medications to children and adolescents, but those criticisms were based on anecdotal reports, studies of small unrepresentative clinical samples and secondary…

A previously invincible mutation in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has been thwarted by an investigational drug in a phase I clinical trial. 12 patients in a trial with chronic phase CML and the T315I mutation had a complete hematologic response (absence of CML cells in the blood) after treatment with ponatinib. Eleven had a major reduction in CML cells in the bone marrow and nine achieved a complete cytogenetic response – no cells in the marrow.  Twelve patients with acute myeloid leukemia also participated in the trial. A separate paper will address those results. T315I is present in…

Merck Serono, a division of Merck, has donated its 100 millionth praziquantel tablet to the World Health Organization (WHO). Schistosomiasis is the second-most prevalent tropical disease in Africa after malaria. It is estimated that more than 200 million people are infected and that around 200,000 die from it in Africa each year. The chronic, parasitic disease is transmitted by flatworms and is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions where poor populations have no access to clean water and sanitary installations. People become infected with the disease by worm larvae mainly in…

The European Commission has approved  Abbott's HUMIRA® (adalimumab) for the treatment of pediatric patients aged 6 to 17 years with severe active Crohn's disease (CD) who failed, are intolerant to, or have contraindications to conventional therapy.  Pediatric Crohn's disease is a chronic, debilitating condition of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that affects up to 200,000 children worldwide. Crohn's disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease and most commonly involves the end of the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine. In addition to symptoms such as…

A new substance class for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases now promises increased efficacy paired with fewer side effects. To achieve this, a team of scientists have combined two already approved pharmaceutical substances with each other using a chemical linker structure.  Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system. It destroys the insulation of the nerve cell signaling system, the myelin sheaths of the neural axons. The consequence of this process is the malfunction of signaling and finally cell death…

Some people have a distinct, disabling sleep disorder called "primary hypersomnia" - they regularly sleep more than 70 hours per week and have difficulties awakening. Even when awake, they still have reaction times comparable to someone who has been awake all night. Their sleepiness often interferes with work or school attendance, and conventional treatments such as stimulants bring little relief. Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered that dozens of adults with this elevated need for sleep have a substance in their cerebrospinal fluid that acts like a sleeping…

An enzyme used in nature can make powerful chemicals as diverse as catnip and a cancer drug, vinblastine, which opens up the prospect of producing these chemicals cheaply and efficiently.  "Thousands of chemicals are derived from the enzyme we have called iridoid synthase," says senior author Dr. Sarah O'Connor from the JIC and the University of East Anglia. "We can start to use it to come up with new-to-nature structures with biological activity of benefit to both medicine and agriculture."  They are produced naturally by some plants such as the medicinal Madagascar periwinkle, but…

The All Wales Strategic Medical Group (AWSMG) has approved Zebinix(R) (eslicarbazepine acetate) for the treatment of partial seizures in highly refractory patients who remain uncontrolled with, or are intolerant to, other anti-epileptic medicine combinations. Eslicarbazepine acetate is licensed in Europe as an adjunctive therapy for adults with partial-onset seizures with or without secondary generalization.   Epilepsy affects nearly 32,000 people in Wales. The successful treatment of partial-onset seizures (the most common form of epilepsy) remains a significant challenge in some…