Feature Channels: Pharmaceuticals

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A diabetes drug is being enlisted in the war against smoking by UTHealth researchers.

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Taking a pharmaceutical formulation of cannabidiol, a cannabis-based medicine, cut seizures nearly in half for children with a rare and severe type of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, according to a phase 3 study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 71st Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, May 4 to 10, 2019. Dravet syndrome, which starts in infancy, can lead to intellectual disability and frequent, prolonged seizures. Cannabidiol is derived from marijuana that does not include the psychoactive part of the plant that creates a “high.”

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A day-long summit on opioid-related topics will focus on bringing findings from research and community-based efforts to those who can use them to make a difference in public policy and clinical practice.

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National and international nominations are being sought for the 2020 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, which honors a physician-scientist who has moved science forward with achievements notable for innovation, creativity and the potential for clinical application.

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The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is pleased with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) article published in the New England Journal of Medicine acknowledging problems with the agency’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. ASA has been a longtime advocate for the Guideline and was involved in its review and development in 2016.

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The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) continues to have serious concerns with the proposed “Medicare for All” legislation, which will be the subject of a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Rules on Tuesday. The proposal would eliminate all private insurance and create a two-year transformation of Medicare into a nationwide, single-payer system, eliminating the age threshold for Medicare eligibility.

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Mount Sinai Receives $6 Million Award from United States Department of Defense to Study Oral Hydrocortisone for PTSD Prevention

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An investigational drug that may block harmful antibodies from passing through the placenta of an expectant mother to the fetus is the focus of a new clinical trial led by Kenneth Moise, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at UTHealth.

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An open-label, multi-cohort Phase II trial, led by investigators at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, reports that treatment with the drug tagraxofusp resulted in high response rates in patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare but highly aggressive – and often fatal bone marrow and blood disorder – for which there are no existing approved therapies.

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In response to the conditions produced by the 2007–09 financial crisis and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis that persisted, one of the world’s central banks doled out some strong medicine — and it caused considerable problems.

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A new chemical synthesis strategy to harvest rich information found in natural products has led to identifying simpler derivatives with potential to selectively protect neurons -- important for such diseases as Alzheimer’s -- or to prevent the immune system from rejecting organ transplants.

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Ever wonder why you really don’t want to stop eating delicious food even though you know you’ve eaten enough? UNC School of Medicine researchers may have found the reason – a specific cellular network motivated mice to keep eating tasty food even though their basic energy needs had been met.

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The University of Illinois at Chicago and Deerfield Management will establish West Loop Innovations, LLC to accelerate the commercialization of therapeutics developed at UIC. Deerfield will provide up to $65 million in translational research funding and commercialization expertise to advance promising UIC discoveries.

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The Acoustical Society of America will hold its 177th meeting May 13-17 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. This major scientific conference brings together interdisciplinary groups of researchers from many far-flung fields, including physics, medicine, music, psychology, architecture and engineering, to discuss their latest research. It will feature nearly 1,000 presentations on sound and its applications

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A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that a slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria caused severe symptoms in a mouse model. The slow-growing variant form of Lyme bacteria, according to the researchers, may account for the persistent symptoms seen in ten to twenty percent of Lyme patients that are not cured by the current Lyme antibiotic treatment.

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ISPOR announced plenary sessions and speakers for ISPOR 2019. The conference will be held May 18-22, 2019 in New Orleans, LA, USA and will focus on the theme, “Rapid. Disruptive. Innovative: A New Era in Health Economics and Outcomes Research.”

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Researchers from the National University of Singapore have identified new biomarkers related to the cognitive impairment associated with cancer known as chemobrain.

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Although penicillin was discovered nearly a century ago, scientists are still learning how the drug makes bacterial cells pop like overfilled balloons.

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Research shows that when pharmacies close, people stop taking widely used heart medications — like statins, beta-blockers and oral anticoagulants — that have known cardiovascular and survival benefits. Declines in adherence — including the complete discontinuation of medication — were highest among people using independent pharmacies, filling all their prescriptions at a single store, or living in low-access neighborhoods with fewer pharmacies.

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Study finds drug could have new applications in non-diabetics

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The neuropeptide oxytocin blocks enhanced drinking in alcohol-dependent rats, according to a study published April 16 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology led by Drs. Tunstall, Koob and Vendruscolo of the National Institutes of Health

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A novel strategy capable of extracting and driving hard-to-reach proteins into water solution where they can be effectively studied using mass spectrometry promises a trove of biological insights and, importantly, may help identify therapeutically relevant proteins and provide new disease diagnostic techniques.

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Dr. Leena Pattarkine and Dr. Shailaja Agrawal are partnering with students to design and fabricate a tool that will aid in the growth of cell cultures via a 3D platform. Launched this spring, the “Biopolymer Sponge Microfluidics for Continuous 3D Cell Culture and Drug Screening Project” aims to transform the field of drug screening and make it much more cost effective.

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Noted researchers Jay Goodman, PhD, of Michigan State University and Janice B. Schwartz, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, have received the PhRMA Foundation’s highest honor – its Award of Excellence – recognizing lifetime professional achievements.

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Southern Research and Japan’s Ina Research announced today they have formed a partnership that calls for Ina to help connect Southern Research with potential new customers for drug development services in the country with the world’s third largest pharmaceutical industry.

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At the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) in Orlando this week, the PhRMA Foundation announced fourteen recipients of its 2019 grants and fellowships in pharmacology/toxicology.

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Ohio, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia have the highest disparity between opioid-related deaths and access to treatment providers for opioid use disorder (OUD) in the U.S. That finding comes from a first-of-its-kind research study.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that how training is organized for doctors-in-training might impact their decision to go into primary care. The study, appearing online today in the Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests that a significant number of primary care internal medicine residents pursue careers in primary care, but perhaps could be more positively influenced if institutions paid more attention to how training is structured.

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Researchers at Mount Sinai have developed a novel approach to cancer immunotherapy, injecting immune stimulants directly into a tumor to teach the immune system to destroy it and other tumor cells throughout the body.

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The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) announce a new collaborative clinical data registry to support high-quality practice and patient care. The registry will allow collection and analysis of data on nuclear medicine procedures, supporting continuous improvement of patient care.

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Children with acute respiratory infections were prescribed antibiotics more often during direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits than during in-person primary care appointments or urgent care visits, according to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh research reported today in Pediatrics.

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The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) has named Jason Ochroch, MD, a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, the 2019 Resident/Fellow of the Year. The award is given annually to a resident or fellow member of ASRA who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to regional anesthesia or pain medicine; has contributed to the advancement of the profession, welfare of residents, or quality of residency education; serves as a role model and mentor to his or her peers; and embodies the values of ASRA.

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30-80% of amputee patients develop chronic pain after their surgery, and there is not yet a clear strategy for relieving that pain. Researchers found that adding liposomal bupivacaine to the nerve block in patients undergoing major lower extremity amputation helped reduce pain and opioid use.

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Dr. Joseph M. Neal will receive ASRA’s 2019 Gaston Labat Award at the 44th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting in Las Vegas, NV. The Gaston Labat Award is given annually to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to the development, teaching, and practice of regional anesthesia in the tradition of Gaston P. Labat, MD (1843-1908).

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Although acetaminophen is frequently given prior to spine surgery to help reduce the need for opioids, this study found no benefit. Given the drug's high cost and low availability, researchers suggest it not be routinely given to this group of patients.

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New findings suggest rapastinel could be useful to help manage withdrawal during the critical first days after someone has entered treatment and is trying to abstain from opioid use, according to researchers.

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UAB launches an emergency room-based medication assisted treatment program, which includes providing peer navigators and certifying more physicians to prescribe Suboxone in an effort to corral the opioid crisis.

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Landon W. Locke, PhD, of Ohio State University has been awarded the ATS Foundation/Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals Research Fellowship in Sarcoidosis. The $80,000 award will help fund Dr. Locke’s study, “Abnormally Sustained M2-like Macrophage Polarization Drives Sarcoidosis Granulomas.”

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In comments submitted to the federal government, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) formally supported the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Pain Management Best Practices Interagency Task Force.

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Scientists at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a method that exploits the multitargeted nature of a chemical inhibitor to pinpoint vulnerabilities within cancer cells.

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Johns Hopkins neuroscientists have found that the psychedelic drug MDMA reopens a kind of window, called a “critical period,” when the brain is sensitive to learning the reward value of social behaviors. The findings, reported April 3 in Nature, may explain why MDMA may be helpful in treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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University at Buffalo researchers have developed a new method to more accurately predict tumor growth rates, a crucial statistic used to schedule screenings and set dosing regimens in cancer treatment.

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Southern Research announced today that April M. Brys, Ph.D., an experienced life sciences executive with a strong track record in research and leadership roles, has been named vice president of the non-profit organization’s Drug Development division.

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In a first on the quest to cure HIV, University of Pittsburgh scientists report that they’ve developed an all-in-one immunotherapy approach that not only kicks HIV out of hiding in the immune system, but also kills it. The key lies in immune cells designed to recognize an entirely different virus.

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This is the largest advocacy meeting for nurse anesthesia providers to focus in on the legislation that affects patients in need of anesthesia care and the practice of healthcare providers who administer the anesthesia.

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AACC, a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to better health through laboratory medicine, is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2019 AACC and AACC Academy Awards. Through this annual awards program, AACC and its academy strive to recognize laboratory medicine professionals in all stages of their careers and to build public awareness that clinical laboratory testing plays a critical role in improving patient health.

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Alzheimer's disease wreaks emotional havoc on patients, who are robbed of their memories, their dignity, and their lives. To date, there have been very few successes in the pursuit of a treatment. But one drug that looks at AD from a different angle is now ready for its first round of testing in humans.