Pharmacology News and Research

Latest Pharmacology News and Research

Chromatin remodeling complex connected to DNA damage control

When molecular disaster strikes, causing structural damage to DNA, players in two important pathways talk to each other to help contain the wreckage, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the August edition of Cell.

12 Aug 2007

New pathway for inflammation-induced cancer

A well-known inflammatory protein spawns an enzyme that inactivates two tumor-suppressing genes, ultimately triggering production of new blood vessels to nourish breast cancer cells, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the August edition of the journal Cell .

11 Aug 2007

Gender differences in renal and other genes contributing to blood pressure

Many common diseases exhibit gender bias and gender differences have been observed in the development of high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart (cardiovascular) disease.

9 Aug 2007

Colon cancer may benefit from hormone replacement therapy

Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia have found new evidence suggesting that colon cancer is actually a disease of missing hormones that could potentially be treated by hormone replacement therapy.

2 Aug 2007

Call for EU to launch major project to map out all our proteins

Biologists still have no clear idea how many active genes there are coding for proteins in humans and other organisms, even though for some species the genomes have been completely sequenced.

26 Jul 2007

Biologic agents valuable treatment option for patients with inflammatory bowel disease

The use of biologic agents for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may benefit patients, but doctors need to consider the potential associated side effects in determining treatment course, according to a consensus paper published in this month's issue of Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.

26 Jul 2007

Researchers improve accuracy of thyroid hormone testing

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have developed a fast and accurate way to measure a major hormone released by the thyroid gland--an advance they say may help in the treatment of many women who have overactive or underactive thyroid glands.

26 Jul 2007

Itchy and scratchy gene discovered

Itching for a better anti-itch remedy? Your wish may soon be granted now that scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the first gene for the itch sensation in the central nervous system.

26 Jul 2007

Protein IKKa protects checkpoint gene from chemical shutdown

A protein that is largely absent in one type of skin cancer protects an important gene in a cell's defense against harmful mutations from being silenced, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the July 20 edition of Molecular Cell.

20 Jul 2007

Impact of food-cancer drug interactions

A commentary in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) urges researchers to explore an intriguing approach to reduce the dose, and therefore the cost, of oral targeted cancer therapies.

18 Jul 2007

Drug-drug or drug-food interactions may offer opportunities to lower costs

Exploiting interactions between food and drugs could dramatically lower the rapidly rising costs of several anticancer drugs, and perhaps many other medications, two cancer-pharmacology specialists suggest in a commentary in the July 16, 2007, issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

17 Jul 2007

Protein km23 - potential target for ovarian cancer treatment

A traffic cop protein in the cell may have an even more important role: transporting a messenger protein that tells components in the nucleus to stop cell growth.

17 Jul 2007

Researchers identify new combination therapy that promotes cancer cell death

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine identified a combination therapy as a way to sensitize resistant human cancer cells to a treatment currently being tested in clinical trials They propose that the therapy may help to selectively eliminate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact, providing a cancer treatment with fewer side effects.

17 Jul 2007

Novel type of communication between nerve cells in the brain discovered

The findings may have relevance for the prevention and treatment of epilepsy, and possibly in the exploration of other aspects of brain functions, from creative thought processes to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

17 Jul 2007

Warwick first new medical school to join MRC strategic partnership

Warwick Medical School has become the first new medical school to join a strategic partnership with the Medical Research Council (MRC).

16 Jul 2007

40% of community pharmacists don't tell parents they are dispensing off-label drugs to children

Forty per cent of community pharmacists have dispensed an off-label drug to a child in the last month, according to research published in the July issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

12 Jul 2007

Attitudes and experiences of community pharmacists towards paediatric off-label prescribing

11 Jul 2007

Magnetic nano tweezers show how cancer drug works

The annoying bulges of an over-wound telephone cord that shorten its reach and limit a caller's motion help to explain why drugs called camptothecins are so effective in killing cancer cells, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Delft University of Technology.

10 Jul 2007

Why males show a higher rate of inflammation than females in the same diseases

Production of a protein that promotes inflammation appears to be linked to the higher incidence of liver cancer in men than in women, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have determined in mouse studies.

9 Jul 2007

Colesevelam HCl hits diabetes with one-two punch

Patients with type 2 diabetes may soon be able to control their glucose and their cholesterol levels with a single drug, according to a study led by Vivian A.

9 Jul 2007