1 drug, many targets: Is this the future?
2011-04-29
(Press-News.org) Potential molecular targets of the anti-HIV drug nelfinavir have been identified, and may explain why the drug is also effective as a cancer therapy. Findings will be published in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology on 28th April 2011.
Nelfinavir is a protease inhibitor that prevents replication of the HIV virus. It has also been found to have a positive effect on a number of solid tumor types but the mechanism of how the drug worked in humans was unclear. Researchers from the University of California San Diego and the City University of New York (CUNY) combined a wide array of computational techniques to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying nelfinavir's observed anti-cancer effect and found that there are weak interactions with a multitude of molecular targets, rather than a strong interaction with a single target.
While drug molecules are designed to bind to targeted proteins in order to achieve a therapeutic effect, small drug molecules can also attach to off-target proteins with similar binding sites. The result may be unwanted side effects or, as in the case of nelfinavir, a secondary and positive effect. Philip E. Bourne, professor of pharmacology at UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and his colleagues suggest that it is the collective effect of these weak interactions that leads to the clinical efficacy of nelfinavir.
The computational methods used by the researchers are a useful way of searching for potential drug targets: "Computer analysis allows us to search for other binding sites that match a particular drug-binding site – like looking for other locks that can be opened by the same key," said Lei Xie, associate professor at Hunter College, CUNY. However, it is a particularly complex route to validation of drug targets. Prof. Bourne adds "This is indeed challenging, but it is hard not to believe that this broad-based systems approach represents the future of drug discovery, at least as far as small-molecule drugs are concerned."
INFORMATION: END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2011-04-29
Getting vaccinated against the flu lowers kidney transplant recipients' risk of organ loss and death, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that concerns about the safety of the influenza vaccine in transplant recipients are unwarranted.
Influenza can cause severe illness and even death in some individuals. Organ transplant recipients and those taking immunosuppressant medications face a particularly high risk of dying after being infected. Protection against the flu ...
2011-04-29
The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor drug, ramipril, is particularly effective in lowering the risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in obese patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
"Obese patients with kidney disease progress more quickly towards renal failure compared to non-obese patients, and ramipril virtually abolishes this excess risk," comments Carmine Zoccali, MD (CNR-IBIM and Ospedali Riuniti di Reggio Calabria, Italy).
The researchers analyzed data from a previous ...
2011-04-29
MADISON — Researchers eavesdropping on complex signals emanating from a remote Wisconsin lake have detected what they say is an unmistakable warning — a death knell — of the impending collapse of the lake's aquatic ecosystem.
The finding, reported today (April 29) in the journal Science by a team of researchers led by Stephen Carpenter, a limnologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the first experimental evidence that radical change in an ecosystem can be detected in advance, possibly in time to prevent ecological catastrophe.
"For a long time, ecologists ...
2011-04-29
Being tall and obese may increase your risk for potentially dangerous blood clots, according to new research in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Obesity is a well-known risk factor for clots in deep veins (usually in the legs) and for pulmonary embolism, a clot in blood vessels of the lungs that can result in sudden death or strain on the heart. Together, the two conditions are called venous thromboembolism (VTE).
Compared with short (5 feet, 7.7 inches or less) and normal-weight men (body mass index < 25kg/m2), ...
2011-04-29
The latest issue of the journal Cell* carries an article that is likely to help solve one of the long-standing mysteries of biomedicine. In a study that challenges currently held views, researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), in Portugal, unravel the molecular mechanism whereby sickle cell hemoglobin confers a survival advantage against malaria, the disease caused by Plasmodium infection. These findings, by the research team lead by Miguel P. Soares, open the way to new therapeutic interventions against malaria, a disease that continues to inflict tremendous ...
2011-04-29
For the past seven years Aperio Training and Education systems has been providing quality accredited SEO training and Wordpress Training for over 3,500 students across the USA and Canada. Now with their even popular advanced Wordpress training now offered through their live 100% online class room portal is being offered to the UK.
If you've ever wanted to master wordpress, Aperio's training guarantees they can help you master Wordpress in a mere few hours, NOT DAYS! Discover what this powerful Wordpress Training can do for you and your business. Find out how to perform ...
2011-04-29
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) have identified potential human molecular targets of the anti-HIV drug Nelfinavir, which may explain why the drug is also effective as a cancer therapy. Their study will be published in the online edition of PLoS Computational Biology on April 28.
Nelfinivir is a protease inhibitor that prevents replication of the HIV virus, but it has also been found to have a positive effect on a number of solid tumor types, and is currently in clinical trial as a cancer ...
2011-04-29
It's one thing to recognize your childhood home when you see it in a photograph and quite another to accurately describe or draw a picture of it based on your recollection of how it looked. A new report published online on April 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, offers some of the first clear evidence that monkeys, like humans, have the capacity for both forms of memory.
The researchers found that rhesus monkeys can flexibly recall extremely simple shapes from memory, as evidenced by their ability to reproduce those shapes on a computer touch screen. The ...
2011-04-29
Our own social status influences the way our brains respond to others of higher or lower rank, according to a new study reported online on April 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. People of higher subjective socioeconomic status show greater brain activity in response to other high-ranked individuals, while those with lower status have a greater response to other low-status individuals.
These differences register in a key component of the brain's value system, a region known as the ventral striatum.
"The way we interact with and behave around other people ...
2011-04-29
Box jellyfish may seem like rather simple creatures, but in fact their visual system is anything but. They've got no fewer than 24 eyes of four different kinds. Now, researchers reporting online on April 28 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have evidence revealing that four of those eyes always peer up out of the water, regardless of the way the rest of the animal is oriented. What's more, it appears that those eyes allow the jellies to navigate their way around the mangrove swamps in which they live.
"It is a surprise that a jellyfish—an animal normally considered ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] 1 drug, many targets: Is this the future?