Pharmaceuticals News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

AI Speeds Up Drug Design for Parkinson's by Ten-Fold

Apr. 17, 2024 — Researchers have used artificial intelligence techniques to massively accelerate the search for Parkinson's disease treatments. The researchers designed and used an AI-based strategy to identify compounds that block the clumping, or aggregation, of ...

New Drug Prevents Flu-Related Inflammation and Lung Damage

Apr. 10, 2024 — Findings show a newly created drug can prevent runaway inflammation while still allowing the immune system to handle the virus, even when given late into ...

New Insight Into Combating Drug-Resistant Prostate Cancer

Apr. 10, 2024 — New research sheds light on the significance of the glucocorticoid receptor in drug-resistant prostate cancer, showing that the development of drug resistance could be prevented by limiting the activity of coregulator ...

Beating Back Bitter Taste in Medicine

Apr. 9, 2024 — The bitter taste of certain drugs is a barrier to taking some medications as prescribed, especially for people who are particularly sensitive to bitter taste. A team found that the diabetes drug rosiglitazone could partially block the bitter taste ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:12pm EDT

Molecular Causes of Different Functions of Opioid Receptors

Apr. 12, 2024 — Drugs that target opioid receptors sometimes have severe side effects. Thousands of people around the world die every day from overdoses involving opioids such as fentanyl. Researchers have taken a ...

Scientists Uncover Key Resistance Mechanism to Wnt Inhibitors in Pancreatic and Colorectal Cancers

Apr. 11, 2024 — A new study reveals why some pancreatic and colorectal tumors resist targeted anti-Wnt drugs and suggests how to overcome it, offering new hope to ...

Landmark Study Involving Babies in Ireland Supports Use of Cystic Fibrosis Drug in Infants from Four Weeks of Age

Apr. 11, 2024 — A Cystic Fibrosis drug targeting the basic defect that causes the condition has been shown to be safe and effective in newborns aged four weeks and ...

Targeting Vulnerability in B-Cell Development Leads to Novel Drug Combination for Leukemia

Apr. 8, 2024 — Scientists discovered which tumor cells resist treatment and why. By characterizing B-cells' developmental stages, they designed and tested a drug ...

Targeting RAS Proteins May Prevent Relapse in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Apr. 9, 2024 — Relapses in a common form of leukemia may be preventable following new research that has identified how the cancer develops resistance to first line ...

New Antibiotic Class Effective Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria

Apr. 1, 2024 — Scientists have discovered a new class of antibiotics with potent activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria, and have shown that it cures bloodstream infections in mice. Two publicly-funded ...

A Simple, Inexpensive Way to Make Carbon Atoms Bind Together

Apr. 5, 2024 — The active ingredient in many drugs is what's known as a small molecule: bigger than water, much smaller than an antibody and mainly made of carbon. It's tough, however, to make these molecules if ...

Developing a Vaccine for the 'Zombie Drug' Xylazine

Apr. 3, 2024 — Chemical biologists design an early 'proof-of-concept' vaccine that could lead to the first effective treatment of xylazine overdose in ...

Researchers Racing to Develop Paxlovid Replacement

Mar. 28, 2024 — SARS-CoV-2 will eventually become resistant to the only effective oral treatment. The world needs another, say ...

A Combination of Approved Drugs Enhances the Delivery of Anti-Bacterial Medications to Treat Tuberculosis

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers have found that approved drugs that were originally shown to normalize blood vessels surrounding tumors (to improve drug delivery to ...

Safety of a Potential New Treatment to Manage Complications from Sickle Cell Disease

Apr. 11, 2024 — A drug approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension may be effective at managing hypertension and end-organ damage in patients with sickle cell disease, according to a new study. An early phase ...

Bringing Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens to Their Knees

Apr. 8, 2024 — Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections that cannot be treated by any known antibiotics pose a serious global threat. A research team has now introduced a method for the development of novel ...

New Enzymatic Cocktail Can Kill Tuberculosis-Causing Mycobacteria

Mar. 27, 2024 — An enzymatic cocktail can kill a variety of mycobacterial species of bacteria, including those that cause ...

Safer, More Efficient Drug Discovery

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a safer and more efficient technique for testing new drugs while they are in ...

Researchers Create Biocompatible Nanoparticles to Enhance Systemic Delivery of Cancer Immunotherapy

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers are enhancing immunotherapy effects against malignant tumors by developing and validating patent-ending poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), or PLGA, nanoparticles modified with adenosine ...

Researchers Discover a Mechanism That Could Improve Platinum-Based Cancer Therapy

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers say they have discovered that the protein puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase (NPEPPS) plays a role in regulating response to platinum chemotherapy in patients with bladder ...

Beating by Overheating: New Strategy to Combat Cancer

Mar. 27, 2024 — To treat cancer, you have to inhibit cancer cells. Right? Researchers did just the opposite. They achieved surprising results by overstimulating cancer cells in the lab and then hitting them at their ...

Crackdown on Illicit Drugs Detects Rise in 'Designer' Drug Substitutes

Mar. 25, 2024 — As authorities crack down on illicit drugs, experts have issued an alert on the use of the synthetic stimulant pentylone, as new research finds a 75% increase in detections across ...

Cancer Therapies Show Promise in Combating Tuberculosis

Mar. 25, 2024 — A study has identified a combination of medications that may improve blood flow within granulomas, benefiting drug delivery. The study leverages decades of cancer research to study ...

Promising Drug Combination for Multiple Myeloma Treatment

Mar. 25, 2024 — New research has found that venetoclax, a medication currently approved for leukemia, has benefits for patients with multiple myeloma when used in combination with another drug. This discovery offers ...

Researchers Invent Artificial Intelligence Model to Design New Superbug-Fighting Antibiotics

Mar. 22, 2024 — Researchers at McMaster University and Stanford University have invented a new generative artificial intelligence model which can design billions of new antibiotic molecules that are inexpensive and ...

Healing Eyes With Contact Lenses

Mar. 21, 2024 — A cross-disciplinary team has developed a new contact lens material that could act as a bandage for corneal wounds while releasing drugs in a controlled manner to help the eye heal ...

Rise in Global Fungal Drug-Resistant Infections

Mar. 18, 2024 — A global wave of infections caused by fungi growing drug-resistant has the medical community issuing precautions on how to protect ...

Laws That Punish Drug Use During Pregnancy Likely Lead to Worse Health Outcomes for Families, Study Finds

Mar. 18, 2024 — Contrary to some claims, laws that criminalize or otherwise punish drug use during pregnancy are more likely to worsen rather than improve health outcomes. The study is the first to systematically ...

Breakthrough Could Make Automated Dosing Systems Universal

Mar. 15, 2024 — Automated insulin dosing systems combine low-cost blood-glucose monitors with insulin pumps that use precision dosing to continuously regulate blood-sugar and hold it steady. Synthetic biologists ...

Steroid Drugs Used for HRT Can Combat E. Coli and MRSA

Mar. 13, 2024 — Researchers have combined computational and microbiology laboratory approaches to identify existing drugs that can be repurposed to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. This research has ...

'Study Drugs' Set the Stage for Other Drug Use and Mental Health Decline

Mar. 11, 2024 — Taking 'study drugs' like Adderall without a diagnosis is not only dangerous in itself, but can lead to other drug use and a decline in mental health, according to new ...

What Makes a Pathogen Antibiotic-Resistant?

Mar. 7, 2024 — In a comparative study, researchers describe how two notable pathogens -- Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumannii -- employ distinctly different tools to fend off antibiotic attack by two ...

Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Responds Rapidly to Bedaquiline-Based Second-Line Therapy

Feb. 27, 2024 — Patients who have drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have a similar microbiological response to bedaquiline-based second-line medications as patients with drug-sensitive TB taking first-line regimens, ...

Drug Limits Dangerous Reactions to Allergy-Triggering Foods, Stanford Medicine-Led Study of Kids Finds

Feb. 25, 2024 — A drug that binds to allergy-causing antibodies can protect children from dangerous reactions to accidentally eating allergy-triggering foods, a new study ...