Tag Archives: drugs

Microfluidic live-cell microarrays

In recent years, the development of new drugs and therapies has decelerated despite the application of combinatorial biochemistry and new therapeutic strategies, such as nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems. Although the numbers of newly developed compounds have steadily

A formula for better asthma, cold and heart medications

Imagine that you had found a way to drop the dose of your asthma medication ten-fold, increase its duration of activity from a couple of hours to all day, and still get the same relief as before.

An important new tool to assess chemotherapy response in cancer patients

Although chemotherapy agents are widely used in the treatment of cancer, it is not widely known that for many patients with solid tumours, only a fraction receive a survival benefit from chemotherapy.  This is particularly the case

The infusion of haematopoietic stem cells in patients with liver insufficiency

Cirrhosis, the end result of long-term liver damage, and its related morbidity represnt a significant burden on health care worldwide. Liver transplantation is the only definitive therapeutic option for those patients. However, the paucity of donors, the incidence

3D environment enhance cellular capacities

Although we live under the 3D (three-dimensional) environment, drug testing is carried out usually by using isolated cells cultured under the 2D (two-dimensional) environment. Liver is a very important organ which metabolizes glucose, alcohol, lipids (e.g. cholesterol)

Receptors as drug targets

According to the latest count, human body has 37.2 trillion cells. They all have the same genetic material, half deriving from a sperm cell, the other half from an egg cell. Consequently, all the cells are in

The binding of mGluR4 targeting drugs could help the finding novel treatments for PD

One of the key features of drugs is an ability to find the corresponding target molecule (eg. protein) from the body. The target protein has unique structural sites that could be loaded with specific chemicals (drugs). The

Renal risk associated with sodium phosphate medication

Sodium phosphate drugs (solutions, tablets or enemas) are used since 1990s as laxatives for bowel cleansing before endoscopy and radiology examination, or occasionally for treatment of severe constipation. Sodium phosphate drugs are low-volume osmotic purgatives, their administration

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs attenuate lung carcinogenesis in smoking female mice

Chronic inflammation plays a crucial role in the development of cancer in general and of cigarette smoke (CS) – related lung cancer in particular. Accordingly, anti-inflammatory drugs, among which the extensively used nonsteroidal anti – inflammatory drugs

New effective treatments for Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease

Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease are the most common neurodegenerative disorders. As people are getting older than in previous generations, the number of people who are affected has increased. Unfortunately, there is no cure for these diseases. The

A genetic switch for your health

We all have heard that reducing your caloric intake improves your health and may even extend your life. A fascinating aspect of calorie restriction is that it has similar beneficial effects in virtually all animal species tested.

Using cheminformatics to aid in the discovery of new drugs

Finding new medicines is a difficult and expensive endeavor and grows more difficult and expensive with every passing year. Thus, new ways to streamline the process are desperately needed by the pharmaceutical industry. Once upon a time,



High blood pressure is controlled more effectively by two drugs in one pill

Hypertension, or high blood pressure (BP), is a major global public health problem, both because of how common it is and its correlation with cardiovascular disease. It has been identified as one of the major risk factors

A new understanding of the mechanism of action of insulin sensitizing drugs provides insight into treating metabolic disease

It has been known for some time that there is a connection between diabetes and other diseases that increase with age, including important neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Interestingly, all of these diseases are

Nanoformulations for cancer therapy

Cancer is a major disease responsible for death in human beings. A lot of research has been performed to develop improved diagnostic tools as well as drugs to treat cancer. Effectiveness of therapeutics in cancerous malignancy is