drugs tagged posts

Researchers from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) have shown that nanoparticles could be used to deliver drugs to the brain to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

The blood-brain barrier is the main obstacle in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. According to a recent study conducted by Jean-Michel Rabanel, a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Charles Ramassamy, nanoparticles with specific properties could cross this barrier and be captured by neuronal cells...

The new method overcomes obstacles in designing D versions of complex helical peptides. Credit: Michael Garton, University of Toronto

Mirror-image version of existing drugs would last longer in the body thanks to their ability to avoid breakdown by enzymes in the stomach and bloodstream. For patients, this means less frequent drug injections and more medicines could potentially be made available as pills. Designing these drugs has been tricky, however. Now a team of researchers led by Philip Kim, a professor of computer science and molecular genetics in the University of Toronto’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, has developed a new technology for making mirror-image peptides, which bind and activate receptors on the surface of cells.

They created mirror-image versio...