SAN DIEGO – Results presented at the of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting on Sunday from the phase II PALOMA-1 trial of CDK inhibitor palbociclib (Pfizer Inc.) led to plenty of buzz that Pfizer Inc. might file for accelerated approval for the drug, despite the lack of an overall survival (OS) benefit to date.
Researchers have identified a biochemical pathway that destabilizes spines in knock-in mice bearing a protein linked to some cases of familial Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The work suggests a novel therapeutic approach to AD and age-related memory loss that is independent of the amyloid-beta processing approaches at the oft-broken heart of current drug trials.
Researchers have identified a metabolite, the fatty acid CMPF, which is starkly elevated in the blood plasma of pregnant women with gestational diabetes and in both women and men with type 2 diabetes.
Scientists have come to a surprising conclusion about how Taxol works – one that might lead to the development of biomarkers that could predict which patients will benefit from the drug, and of better anti-mitotic agents.
As Alzheimer’s drugs keep failing clinically, the consensus among researchers in the field is that for the current approach – which is focused on amyloid beta – to work, treatments will have to start earlier.
More than 150,000 Americans undergo weight loss surgery annually. But according to a new study, it may be possible to ditch the scalpel but still reap the benefits of the procedure, either through drugs or even, possibly, changes to the diet.
Researchers have identified a regulatory protein whose expression is important for protecting neurons from damage in the elderly. In doing so, they may have found an answer to one of the big puzzles in neurodegenerative disease: Many patients whose brains look like they should have Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy were, in fact, doing fine in terms of their cognitive functions and memory.
A vaccine that provided modest protection from contracting HIV in the RV144 “Thai” trial appears to have done so by inducing a broad, “polyfunctional” antibody response, rather than high titers of neutralizing antibodies that are the goal of vaccine development efforts.
Researchers have identified a microRNA that could be a therapeutic target in heart failure patients. In their findings, they showed that miR-25 levels were increased in a mouse model of heart failure, and blocking that microRNA stopped the progression of existing heart failure and improved survival in the animals.
Researchers may have discovered why a certain antibiotic class can be highly toxic, and a pathway toward making it less so, while looking for something different altogether.
