Australia is famous, among other things, for venomous animals. Its plants, it turns out, are just as hostile. Now, researchers at the University of Queensland have isolated “neurotoxic peptides from the venom of the giant Australian stinging tree,” as they titled their paper. While the tree’s venomous effects were no secret – the authors wrote that it is known for its “remarkably persistent and painful stings upon contact,” which can produce pain flares for weeks – the effect had been attributed to small molecules.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in oncology, including: Single-cell RNA sequencing may clarify response to chemotherapy; Epigenetic resistance to PARP inhibitors; Researchers eye organ-on-a-chip drug screening model.
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Epigenetic resistance to PARP inhibitors; Arthritis is different disease with antibodies than without.
The European Society for Medical Oncology is slanted toward clinical medicine, and plenary sessions at the ESMO Virtual Congress 2020 featured phase III trials on approved drugs. But there were smaller sessions devoted to basic science as well. At one of those sessions, several researchers shared new insights into metastasis.
Gastric cancers were the focus of the final plenary session of the European Society for Medical Oncology’s Virtual Congress 2020. Results from the Checkmate-649, ATTRACTION-4, and Keynote-590 studies showed that advanced gastroesophageal tumors can benefit from first-line treatment with PD-1 checkpoint blockers in addition to chemotherapy, staving off progression and death by a few months.
One of the highlights of the first presidential program at this year’s European Society for Medical Oncology 2020 Virtual Congress were results from the Checkmate 9ER study by Toni Choueiri, who is the director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Checkmate 9ER tested the use of a combination of checkpoint blocker Opdivo (nivolumab, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) and receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor Cabometyx (cabozantinib, Exelixis Inc.) as first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma.
CDK 4/6 inhibitor Verzenio (abemaciclib, Eli Lilly and Co.) reduced the risk of recurrence in women with high-risk hormone receptor driven and HER2-negative breast cancer when added to endocrine therapy in the monarchE phase III trial.
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have used RNA-targeted CRISPR to reverse symptoms in an animal model of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). They reported their findings in the Sept. 14, 2020, issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.
