drug

Alzheimer’s drug study gives ‘tantalising’ results

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A drug that destroys the characteristic protein plaques that build up in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s is showing “tantalising” promise, scientists say.

Experts are cautious because the drug, aducanumab, is still in the early stages of development.

But a study in Nature has shown it is safe and hinted that it halts memory decline.

Larger studies are now under way to fully evaluate the drug’s effects.

The build-up of amyloid in the brain has been a treatment target for many years.

This study, of 165 patients, was designed to test aducanumab was safe to take.

After a year of treatment, it also showed the higher the dose the stronger the effect on amyloid plaques.

 

Read at BBC 

 

Link to paper 

Cancer drug combination ‘shrinks 60% of melanomas’

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A pair of cancer drugs can shrink tumours in nearly 60% of people with advanced melanoma, a new trial has suggested.

An international trial on 945 patients found treatment with ipilimumab and nivolumab stopped the cancer advancing for nearly a year in 58% of cases.

UK doctors presented the data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Cancer Research UK said the drugs deliver a “powerful punch” against one of the most aggressive forms of cancer.

Melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, is the sixth most common cancer in the UK – it kills more than 2,000 people in Britain each year.

 

 

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How DNA sequencing is transforming the hunt for new drugs

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Drug manufacturers have begun amassing enormous troves of human DNA in hopes of significantly shortening the time it takes to identify new drug candidates, a move some say is transforming the development of medicines.

The efforts will help researchers identify rare genetic mutations by scanning large databases of volunteers who agree to have their DNA sequenced and to provide access to detailed medical records.

It is made possible by the dramatically lower cost of genetic sequencing — it took government-funded scientists $3 billion and 13 years to sequence the first human genome by 2003. As of last year, the cost was closer to $1,500 per genome, down from $20,000 five years ago.

 

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Drugs in dirt: Scientists appeal for help

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US scientists are asking the public to join them in their quest to mine the Earth’s soil for compounds that could be turned into vital new drugs.

Spurred on by the recent discovery of a potential new antibiotic in soil, the Rockefeller University team want to check dirt from every country in the world.

They have already begun analysing samples from beaches, forests and deserts across five continents.

But they need help getting samples.

Which is where we all come in.

Citizen science

On their Drugs From Dirt website, they say: “The world is a big place and we can’t get get to all of the various corners of it.

“We would like some assistance in sampling soil from around the world. If this sounds interesting to you – sign up.”

They want to hear from people from all countries and are particularly keen to receive samples from unique, unexplored environments such as caves, islands, and hot springs.

Such places, they say, could house the holy grail – compounds produced by soil bacteria that are entirely new to science.

Researcher Dr Sean Brady told the BBC: “We are not after hundreds of thousands of samples. What we really want is a couple of thousand from some really unique places that could contain some really interesting stuff. So it’s not really your garden soil we are after, although that will have plenty of bacteria in it too.”

 

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