Researchers based at the City University of New York (CUNY) have designed a deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) model that can improve preclinical predictions of drug responses in humans. As outlined in the Oct. 17, 2022, online issue of Nature Machine Intelligence, the researchers believe their model – a context-aware deconfounding autoencoder (CODE-AE) – can help improve the quality of early drug response prediction and help reduce subsequent clinical trial failures.

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (MAb) pair COV2-2196 (tixagevimab, class I) and COV2-2130 (cilgavimab, class III) are human neutralizing Abs (nAbs) that target nonredundant, complementary epitopes within the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S-RBD).

Investigators from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark have developed a cell line engineered to express bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) and key extracellular matrix genes and critical factors that regulate and support human hematopoiesis. The findings were reported in the Oct. 12, 2022, issue of Science Translational Medicine. One of the clinical applications that the research team is interested in involves exploiting the MSOD-B hOss as a tumor model for bone colonization in the context of various cancers.

It is largely known that oral drug delivery for macromolecules is often limited by the degradative environment of the gastrointestinal tract. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and their collaborators have presented Robocap, an oral mucus-clearing drug-delivery capsule that enhances the gastrointestinal absorption of drugs.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanosized membrane vesicles released from a variety of cells that play important roles in cell-cell communication and which circulate in almost every body fluid, including blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Two research teams independently reported in the Oct. 5, 2022, issues of Nature (Duke University) and Nature Biotechnology (Stanford University) on the development of RNA sensing technologies designed to target cell-specific RNA sequences to form a double-stranded RNA:RNA hybrid that is then edited by endogenous ADAR proteins to remove a stop codon and ultimately enabled to express any protein placed within the construct. The target design typically starts from single-cell RNA transcriptomics data that previously identified cell-specific RNA transcriptomics.

Microorganisms such as bacteria, sperm and microalgae have evolved to develop robust actuation systems that enable autonomous motion, and these natural cellular systems have recently emerged as attractive carriers for transporting therapeutics to hard-to-reach body locations.  According to a recent publication, researchers from University of California, San Diego have developed a novel algae-based motor platform, with the aim of addressing limitations of cargo delivery into the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Failure of integrin inhibitors in clinical trials can be avoided by redesigning the chemical conformation of these proteins, as shown by a study led by Timothy Springer, a professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Boston Children's Hospital, and one of the winners of the 2022 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.