Mitochondrial toxicity - an underestimated risk for late-stage failure
Recent comprehensive reviews revealed: Medical researchers are worried about hidden mitochondrial toxicity of their drug candidates causing attrition in late-stage. Searching in PubMed database on 'drug-induced mitochondrial toxicity' leads to more than 7,000 hits. Quite often drug-induced mitochondrial toxicity can't be detected by conventional cancer cell-based in vitro toxicity assays. Most highly proliferable cells used for in vitro cytotoxicity assays rely on glycolysis for energy production and avoid the oxidative pathway that involves mitochondria ("Cabtree" effect, see Marroquin, L.Y. et al., Toxicological Sciences, 97:539, 2007).
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Interactions between drugs can also be measured at lowest doses
Clinical pharmacologists at Heidelberg University Hospital have achieved major progress for improving the reliability of drugs. In a pharmacological study, they showed for the first time that interactions between drugs can be detected with minute doses in the range of nanograms. However, at these low doses, the drugs are neither effective nor do they have side effects. This means that studies on interactions occurring in drug combinations can be conducted practically without posing risks or negative impacts on the participants. This is true not only for healthy volunteers, as has been observed to date, but also for patients. The study was published in the medical journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
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Diabetes patients need to be consulted to improve treatment
Patients with type 2 diabetes who tailor their own treatment in cooperation with their doctor can reduce their risk of complications such as heart attack with up to 20 percent. This is the result of a new Danish study from the Research Unit for General Practice, University of Copenhagen. Patients who cooperate with their general practitioner and set personal goals for treatment while receiving continuous feedback from their doctor can reduce their risk of complications with up to 20 percent. This is one of the research results of a Danish study just published, "Diabetes care in general Practice".
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Revealing the weapons by which bacteria fight each other
A new study which was performed jointly at Umeå University and the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, discovered that bacteria can degrade the cell membrane of bacterial competitors with enzymes that do not harm their own membrane. This exciting finding opens the way for the development of new antibacterial drugs to fight bacteria using their own weapons. During the infection of a host organism, pathogenic bacteria can excrete toxins that cause damage to host cells and tissue. Interestingly, bacteria also use similar mechanisms in competition with one another.
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The metabolic weathervane of cancer
Highly expressed in various cancers and known for its cytoprotective properties, TRAP1 protein has been identified as a potential target for antitumor treatments. As a result of the research conducted by Len Neckers, from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA, and Didier Picard, from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, this outlook is now being called into question. The researchers' findings, published in PNAS, describe how TRAP1 disrupts the metabolism of malignant cells, and shows that the quantity of this protein decreases as they progress to a more aggressive stage. The suppression of TRAP1 leads to the transfer from one metabolic pathway to another (more powerful) one, as well as a significant increase in the motility and invasiveness of cells. In some situations, a therapy designed to inhibit TRAP1 could actually stimulate tumor progression to a metastatic state.
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Genetic 'spelling mistakes' that increase the risk of common cancers
More than 80 genetic 'spelling mistakes' that can increase the risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer have been found in a large, international research study within the framework of the EU Network COGS. For the first time, the researchers also have a relatively clear picture of the total number of genetic alterations that can be linked to these cancers. Ultimately the researchers hope to be able to calculate the individual risk of cancer, to better understand how these cancers develop and to be able to generate new treatments.
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46 gene sequencing test for cancer patients on the NHS
The first multi-gene DNA sequencing test that can help predict cancer patients' responses to treatment has been launched in the National Health Service (NHS), thanks to a partnership between scientists at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. The test uses the latest DNA sequencing techniques to detect mutations across 46 genes that may be driving cancer growth in patients with solid tumours. The presence of a mutation in a gene can potentially determine which treatment a patient should receive.
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