WASHINGTON – Perhaps nothing illustrates the sense of hope that pervades the 19th International AIDS Conference being held in Washington this week like a much-repeated anecdote – told at least three time in as many sessions – about the casketmaker in Lesotho complaining about how much business is down due to the increased survival times of HIV-infected individuals.

The notion that one gene can make only one protein, once a central tenet of molecular biology, has long since been revised. One gene can make several proteins through alternative splicing.

Anyone who thinks that the term "the dismal science" refers to economics is clearly not involved in clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, an indication which has dashed the last 13 Phase III trials attempting to make a dent in it.

The valley of death, Robert Keith told BioWorld Today, "is a fairly commonly used term these days. And I think it means different things, to some extent, to different people."

Tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA, sold as Activase by Roche AG) is the only stroke treatment that has made it to the market at all, amidst a bevy of failed attempts to develop additional stroke drugs. But its limitations are twofold.

When they work, antidepressants can be a godsend. But they only work in about half of the patients who take them. And if the first attempt doesn't work, there are second- and third-line options to choose from.

Researchers from the Australian Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and colleagues, including some from Cylene Pharmaceuticals Inc., have reported that by inhibiting RNA Polymerase I with their preclinical compound CX-5461, they were able to activate p53 specifically in cancer cells – a feat that researchers have been trying to achieve "for many years," Cylene CEO William Rice told BioWorld Today.

Researchers have identified a gene variant that is protective against both late-onset Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline. Beyond its scientific novelty, the work provides a proof of concept that inhibiting beta-secretase, or BACE1, can be effective against both Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline – because that is the net effect of the variant that senior author Kari Stefansson and his team have identified.

Diabetic patients are two to three times as likely to be depressed as the general population. This week, scientists reported that they have identified a molecule that is low in both conditions, and may serve as a point of therapeutic intervention.

It's no secret that high hopes ride on the development of combination drugs. But when trying to develop such combinations, "the details become exponentially more complex," Omid Farokhzad told BioWorld Today.