Therapeutic

Study reveals candidate targets for anti-retroviral therapeutics

The increased frequency of drug resistance in isolates of the AIDS virus, HIV, makes identification of new antiviral targets an urgent necessity. Host genes required to support the replication of HIV are a potential source of such novel targets, but relatively few appropriate target genes have been identified in animal cells thus far. A new study, conducted by Dr. Suzanne Sandmeyer and colleagues...

Tetanus toxin found to have therapeutic properties

A team of researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Institute of Neuroscience at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has discovered that tetanus toxin, which causes tetanus, could be extremely useful as a therapy against psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and anorexia, and to slow the progress of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson'...

Dendritic cells offer new therapeutic target for drugs to treat MS and other autoimmune disease

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have found that a gene pathway linked to a deadly form of leukemia may provide a new way to treat autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis. Their tests in cell cultures and mice suggest that blocking the pathway by interfering with a blood cell growth gene, known as FLT3, targets an immune system cell often ignored in favor of T-cell t...

Greasing interferon's gears may pave way to greater therapeutic benefits, fewer side effects

nterferon -- a critical protein that mediates the body's defense against a wide variety of infectious agents and tumors -- may soon have greater therapeutic value as the result of a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "Essentially, we found a way to grease the gears that drive the interferon signal," says Michael J. Holtzman, M.D., the Selma...

New Therapeutic Target Identified In Inherited Brain Tumor Disorder

With preliminary results from a study in Botswana, Harvard School of Public Health researchers have found that people with HIV-1 subtype C in resource-poor settings, who receive antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, can achieve comparable results to those in the developed world. A fully supported health care delivery system and infrastructure help ensure this success, according to data published in Novem...

Anthrax inhibitor counteracts toxin, may lead to new therapeutics

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Toronto have designed a nanoscale assembly of molecules that successfully counteracts and inhibits anthrax toxin in animal and laboratory experiments. The novel approach used to neutralize anthrax toxin could be applied in designing potent therapeutics for a variety of pathogens and toxins, according to the researchers. <...

Therapeutic prospects beyond Vioxx

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have clarified the mechanism by which drugs like Celebrex and Vioxx cause heart problems, in multiple animal models. The findings offer the prospect of a new generation of anti-inflammatory drugs that bypass this issue, as reported in the April 13 advanced online edition and May print issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.<...

Nano-particles effective in killing cancer with one-two punch of chemotherapeutics

Research studies, based at the University of Pennsylvania, demonstrate that biodegradable nano-particles containing two potent cancer-fighting drugs are effective in killing human breast tumors. The unique properties of the hollow shell nano-particles, known as polymersomes, allow them to deliver two distinct drugs, paclitaxel, the leading cancer drug known by brand names such as Taxol, and doxo...

T cells activated to fight HIV basis for dendritic cell therapeutic vaccine

Having their immune system cells go through a laboratory version of boot camp may help patients win their battle against HIV, believe University of Pittsburgh researchers. In essence, that's the concept behind the development of a novel therapeutic vaccine loaded with a patient's own souped up dendritic cells, which have been galvanized to rally other cells of the immune system in fighting the vi...

One therapeutic dose of radiation causes 30 percent spongy bone loss in mice

Mice receiving just one therapeutic dose of radiation lost up to 39% of the spongy portion of their inner bone, reducing the inner bone's weight bearing connections by up to 64%, researchers reported. The study, which appears in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, has implications for patients receiving radiation therapy and astronauts traveling on long space flights. <p...

Therapeutic role found for carbon monoxide

In a medical case of Jekyll and Hyde, carbon monoxide ?the highly toxic gas emitted from auto exhausts and faulty heating systems ?has proven effective in treating the symptoms of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), an extremely debilitating condition that typically leads to right heart failure and eventual death. The new findings, made in an animal study led by researchers at Beth Isra...

Small molecule dervived from Rb2/p130 could act as cancer therapeutic

A small molecule derived from the spacer domain of the tumor-suppressor gene Rb2/p130 has demonstrated the ability to inhibit tumor growth in vivo and could be developed into an anti-cancer therapeutic, according to researchers at Temple University's Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine. The researchers reported their findings, "A small molecule based on the pRb2/p13...

Putting feelings into words produces therapeutic effects in the brain

Another study, with the same participants and three of the same members of the research team, combines modern neuroscience with a...

Blood-brain barrier breached by new therapeutic strategy

A major obstacle in the treatment of infections and other diseases of the brain is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents systemically delivered therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain. Grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, have now shown that a short protein (peptide) from the rabies virus can carry a strip of ther...