Medicinal Chemistry News and Research

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National Institutes of Health supports novel drug discovery research

Approximately $1.7 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health will enable a multidisciplinary team of University of Illinois at Chicago researchers to build a reference library of bacteria to help scientists quickly identify bacterial strains and analyze their disease-fighting potential.

5 Oct 2018

Stevens researchers develop new class of molecules for breast cancer treatment

Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology and colleagues have designed and developed a new class of molecules that use a never-before-known mechanism that may halt or destroy breast cancer tumors, particularly for patients with drug-resistant or dangerously metastatic stages of the disease.

4 Oct 2018

New ReFRAME drug repurposing collection offers hope for treating major diseases

Each year, millions of people worldwide suffer from potentially fatal infectious diseases that often leave survivors facing a lifetime of related health problems. But what if drugs against such diseases already existed but nobody knew it?

4 Oct 2018

Study identifies camelid nanobodies capable of blocking EGF in cancer cells

The natural world often provides the answer to unsolved medical problems. On this occasion, the solution to a challenge posed by cancer has come about from the immune system of camelids.

3 Oct 2018

Researchers decode anti-inflammatory mechanism of vitamin E and its metabolites

Vitamin E's positive effects often fail to manifest themselves as strongly as expected, but sometimes administering vitamin E actually has detrimental effects. An international team has now found a possible cause for this.

3 Oct 2018

New compound promotes social interaction in laboratory mice with autism

Children with autism often find social interactions awkward, leaving them isolated. Now in a study appearing in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, scientists report that they have discovered a first-of-its-kind compound that promotes social interaction among laboratory mice that display autistic traits.

26 Sep 2018

Scientists find way to boost efficacy of powerful antimalarial drug with anti-cancer medicines

Scientists have found a way to boost the efficacy of the world's most powerful antimalarial drug with the help of chemotherapy medicines, according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications.

20 Sep 2018

LSTM led partnership receives funding to develop drug for treating two neglected tropical diseases

An LSTM led partnership has been awarded nearly £1.5 million from the Medical Research Council for the pre-clinical development of a candidate drug to treat onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis, by targeting the bacterial symbiont Wolbachia.

14 Sep 2018

Scientists develop first non-antibiotic drug to treat tuberculosis in animals

Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed the first non-antibiotic drug to successfully treat tuberculosis in animals.

11 Sep 2018

Breakthrough fluorine discovery may impact how pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs

A groundbreaking discovery by chemists at The University of Texas at San Antonio will have a significant impact on how pharmaceutical companies develop new drug treatments.

6 Sep 2018

Researchers create candidate drugs with potential to curb smoking

Washington State University researchers have created more than a dozen candidate drugs with the potential to curb smokers' desire for nicotine by slowing how it is broken down in the body. The researchers hope the substances can help people reduce their consumption of tobacco, if not quit altogether.

28 Aug 2018

INRS professors develop innovative strategy to identify leishmanicidal molecules

Leishmania is a microorganism that enters the human body via a sandfly bite. Instead of fleeing the white blood cells deployed by the immune system to destroy it, the parasite allows itself to be swallowed up.

24 Aug 2018

Chemists synthesize garlic ingredient from readily available components

Fresh garlic extracts contain a variety of healthy organosulfur compounds, among which ajoene forms a major oil-extractable ingredient.

24 Aug 2018

New drug shows potential to prevent painful side effect of therapy

About 50,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed annually with head, neck, nasal and oral cancers. Most are treated with radiation, and of those, 70-80 percent develop a painful and debilitating side effect called severe oral mucositis.

20 Aug 2018

Scientists discover key vulnerability of mixed lineage leukemia

Childhood leukemia is a diagnosis that no family ever wants to endure. While the treatment of most types of leukemia has improved steadily over the years, a few specific types remain very difficult to treat.

13 Aug 2018

New laboratory-synthesized molecule appears to fight malaria effectively

A novel laboratory-synthesized molecule based in natural compounds found in marine gliding bacteria - known as marinoquinolines - is a strong candidate for the development of a new antimalarial drug.

10 Aug 2018

Scientists define key binding characteristics of protein associated with heart disease and breast cancer

Galectins attach to other proteins via the carbohydrates on their surfaces (sugar-binding proteins). As such they impact on a range of processes in the cell associated with a number of diseases, including heart disease and breast cancer – the most common cancer in women worldwide, with 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 alone.

10 Aug 2018