Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are often recurrent. The organism does not always establish an effective line of defense that protects from reinfection. The key lies in two reservoirs of bacteria and how tissue-resident memory T cells (TRMs) trigger the immune response. A recent paper from the Pasteur Institute in France describes how these cells mediate immunity to defeat reinfection. Read More
With overuse of opioids – the standard of care for many chronic pain cases – becoming something of an epidemic in the U.S., the availability of an alternative, non-opioid analgesic is a big draw. Established in 2021, Adolore Biotherapeutics Inc. is one company that could provide the answer, with its locally and long-acting gene therapies potentially providing a breakthrough that “knocks everybody’s socks off.” Read More
Xtalpi Inc. has entered into an artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly & Co. The collaboration, valued at up to $250 million in upfront and milestone payments, will leverage Xtalpi’s integrated AI capabilities and robotics platform to de novo design and deliver drug candidates for an undisclosed target. Xtalpi seeks to deliver a novel compound, which Lilly will pursue in clinical and commercial development. Read More
Treatment failure after repeated administration of cisplatin, one of the most used cancer chemotherapeutics, is due to either development of treatment resistance or chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain. Read More
National Institute of Pharmaceutical R&D Co. Ltd. has identified Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) agonists reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer and viral infections. Read More
While microglia constitute the immune cells of the brain, their potential role in the early development of neuronal circuitry is poorly understood. Investigators at the Karolinska Institutet, together with eight other institutions, characterized an anatomically distinct microglial cell population identified as expressing the arginase-1 (ARG1) enzyme. Read More
Ether lipids (EL) are glycerophospholipids with a different structure and functional characteristics than fatty acids, thus requiring a specialized biosynthesis pathway. Peroxisomal fatty acyl-CoA reductase 1 (FAR1) is a rate-limiting enzyme for ether lipid synthesis, with mutations associated with a rare human disease. Moreover, altered EL homeostasis has been observed in various prevalent human diseases. Read More
Chongqing Fochon Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has divulged apoptosis regulator Bcl-2 inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, Addison’s disease, allergy, asthma, atherosclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis, Alzheimer’s disease and systemic lupus erythematosus, among others. Read More
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is a group of neuropathies characterized by sensory and motor dysfunction that progress with aging. It is considered that about 60% of the axonal forms of the disease, such as CMT2, remain genetically undiagnosed. Read More
Additional early-stage research and drug discovery news in brief, from: Amplia Therapeutics, Can-Fite Biopharma, Imunon, Lixte Biotechnology, Regcell. Read More
