Category: Pharmaceuticals
Experimental drug reverses memory loss in mouse models of Alzheimer’s
A synthetic version of a naturally-occurring chemical compound has been found to reverse memory loss in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at US-based Salk Institute said the experimental drug provides “much to consider in the wider development of compounds to counter the degenerative effects of Alzheimer’s.” The Salk researchers focused on an anti-aging drug […]
New pressure treatment sans needles allows for safe, easy insulin administration
Traditional Chinese topical treatments, including the ‘tuina’ therapy where pressure is first applied on skin and muscle before a topical ointment, has inspired researchers in Singapore to use similar techniques for safer insulin delivery. A team at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) demonstrated how magnets can be used to pinch and apply pressure – called “temporal […]
“Inactive” drug compounds thought to cause unintended psychological effects flagged
Some biologically inactive compounds contained in drugs, called excipients, may lead to more unanticipated side effects than previously assumed. Scientists from the San Francisco School of Pharmacy, the University of California (UCSF), US, realised most currently used excipients have only been designated as inactive based on decades-old animal studies or historical precedents. The scientists have […]
Israeli clinical trial shows the efficacy of microdosing THC to treat chronic pain
Minute doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – essentially the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis – have been shown to reduce pain sensation in a recent clinical experiment, without inducing psychoactive side effects. Israeli pharma-tech company Syqe Medical set out to try to solve the problem of imprecise medical cannabis dosing to treat chronic pain. They came […]
Roche’s Tecentriq-chemotherapy combo now approved for treating aggressive type of lung cancer
The Singaporean Health Sciences Authority (HAS) has recently approved of global pharmaceutical giant Roche’s new immunotherapy treatment: Tecentriq® (Atezolizumab) will be used as first-line treatment of adults with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), after reports showed that the cancer immunotherapy helped patients live significantly longer compared to chemotherapy alone. Apart from Singapore, the immunotherapy […]
Stomach acid-withstanding peptide pills could be a new type of oral drug
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have recently developed a novel method of testing and creating peptides that can survive degradation by stomach acids – these could potentially make up oral drugs for chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, unlike current medications that must be injected or administered in […]
New Ebola vaccine effective against all four virus species dangerous to humans
Infectious disease scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre (CCHMC) in Ohio, US, have recently tested a novel vaccine candidate for Ebola in animals, which seems to be effective against all four species of Ebola that infect humans. The new vaccine candidate doesn’t contain live vectors and instead uses spherical virus-like particle (VLP) – made […]
International team finds trial drug that blocks early COVID-19 infection
A trial drug that appears to block the cellular door SARS-CoV-2 – the virus responsible for COVID-19 – uses to infect its hosts has been identified by a team of researchers from Canada, Spain and Sweden. The drug could very well stop early infection of the novel coronavirus and provide important information as to how […]
Australian scientists find possible coronavirus treatment in FDA-approved drug
A present-day anti-parasitic drug has been shown to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic currently, in just two days. As observed by scientists at Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) and the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) in Melbourne, Australia, the drug, Ivermectin, stopped the coronavirus […]
Australian agency starts “milestone” testing of potential COVID-19 vaccines
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has begun animal testing of two potential COVID-19 vaccines, which will determine if they would be safe to use on humans. The vaccines, one by UK’s University of Oxford and one by US company Inovio Pharmaceutical, have been cleared for animal testing by the World Health […]
