Pharmacology
rwalsh |
While the use of IC50’s is a huge problem in the biological sciences, Academia, Industry and Regulatory bodies have good reason to avoid the established field of enzyme kinetics. As I said in the last post, the problem with IC50 values is that they strip away or obscure finer details of molecular interactions producing an artificial wall on the amount of information we can obtain from biological systems. However, the perception is that modern enzyme kinetic drug studies do not provide a significant improvement in our understanding relative to the increase in resources that are required…
rwalsh |
Low standards breed
poor results.
I have been waiting for the biological
revolution for quite a while now, and it always
seems to be just around the corner.
Synthetic biology, genomics, protein crystallography, proteiomics have
all promised to revolutionize the way medical discoveries are made and change
the way we view biology. And it would be foolish not to acknowledge that
these fields have changed the way biology is studied, but the change seems to be
happening at a somewhat disappointing rate.
This may be because the systems that these fields are examining are so…
If surveys are accurate, up to 20 percent of students have taken Modafinil (Provigil), a psychostimulant embraced by "lifehackers" in the naturalistic crowd, to boost their ability to study and improve their chances of exam success.
It is claimed, mostly by other students and readers of New York Magazine, that Modafinil is a 'smart' drug. Yet that isn't the case. Just like people without celiac disease are actually damaging their health giving up gluten and replacing it with the extra sugar, extra fat, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose and xanthan gum found in gluten-free foods, healthy…
FK506 binding protein 51 (FKBP51) is an Hsp90 co-chaperone and regulator of the glucocorticoid receptor, and consequently of stress physiology. It regulates acute and chronic effects of treatment with antidepressants via autophagic pathways (processes by which cells break down and recycle their components) in mice and is linked to the clinical response to antidepressants in humans, according to a new paper.
The researchers treated wild-type mice and FKBP51 knockout mice (genetically altered animals that make no FKBP51) with antidepressants to show that the stress response and the…
Named after the location of first documented outbreak (Norwalk Ohio in 1968) norovirus, aka the "Stomach Flu," "Winter Vomiting Bug," or the "Cruise Ship Virus" is an evil little demon that spares no one. There are few, if any of us, who haven't experienced its misery; it infects 21 million people annually in the US every year—second only to the common cold. It is the leading cause (up to 80 percent) of gastroenteritis in the western world.
A common saying about the bug — "it doesn't kill you, but you might wish it did" is actually false. Even in the US, it causes about 60,…
Will the medicines you take make their way back into your food? They might, especially of you take your cue from an old Yorkshire song which deals with human recycling in the food chain, via worms and ducks. Now, research [1] from the university of York (where else?) has studied one step of this process in detail.
When we (so to speak) make a donation to the local authority, along with the usual liquid and solid we may present them with medicines we have taken, or metabolites thereof. These generally end up in a sewage treatment plant. When I was at school, our…
Olaparib, an experimental twice-daily oral cancer drug, produces an overall tumor response rate of 26 percent in several advanced cancers associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, according to results of a Phase II study.
For the majority of patients in the study, olaparib was at least their third different cancer therapy. Based on the new data, the authors say olaparib warrants further investigation in phase III trials.
The positive response in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who had received an average of two prior rounds of chemotherapy is an especially noteworthy finding since…
Fast testing for bacterial infections may help to reduce excessive antibiotic use, finds a systematic review. When doctors tested for the presence of bacterial infections, they prescribed fewer antibiotics.
Antibiotics treat infections caused by bacteria but not those caused by viruses. Most patients who visit their doctors with acute respiratory infections are suffering from viral infections like the common cold. However, because doctors usually have no immediate way of knowing whether an infection is bacterial or viral, they may still prescribe antibiotics for these patients.
Unnecessary…
Over 200,000 United States troops who fought in the 1990-1991 campaign to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi invaders have been diagnosed with a set of chronic health problems dubbed Gulf War Syndrome. The symptoms range from fatigue, muscle pain and weakness to decreased cognitive function and gastrointestinal and skin problems, even decades after the conflict.
In a new paper, researchers report that a supplement of coenzyme Q, which is produced in the body, available in meat, and as a a dietary additive – provides health benefits to persons suffering from these Gulf War illness symptoms. (…
GLP |
Chocolate as brain food? Credit: John Loo/Flickr
By Meredith Knight, Genetic Literacy Project
Scanning headlines last week, one may have been persuaded that chocolate consumption preserves and improves memory functions for aging brains. In reality, this news should not inspire the purchase of an extra bag of Halloween candy.
Flavanols, the active ingredient class tested in the study published last week, are found in a variety of foods. One of those is chocolate. And, since the study was funded in part by Mars, which produces a flavanol-containing supplement, chocolate was the targeted…