Two back-to-back studies published in the July 23rd issue of Cell, one from Columbia University Medical Center and the other from Johns Hopkins researchers, further the hypothesis that metabolic control and bone remodelling are inextricably linked. Both studies point to…
Blog Archives
Mice Can Do What Poppies Can
Preparations from the opium poppy, papaver somniferum, have been used for thousands of years to relieve pain. In the early 1800s, Sertürner isolated one of the constituent alkaloids, morphine, which was later shown to be almost entirely responsible for the…
How Small Molecule Restores Aldehyde Dehydrogenase Function
The lower alcohol tolerance of some Asian groups compared with people of European descent is caused, in part, by a mutant copy of the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene, ALDH2. As well as carrying out the second step in the oxidative metabolism…
How to Keep Hepatocytes Happy
The liver plays a central role in metabolising and clearing drugs and other xenobiotics from the body and, because of this role, is particularly susceptible to damage. More than 900 drugs have been linked to more or less severe liver…
Deuterium is Go
Concert Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline recently announced a collaboration to develop deuterium-containing medicines, including CTP-518, a partially deuterated version of the HIV protease inhibitor, atazanavir (Reyataz™), marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Reyataz™ is used in combination therapy to treat HIV/AIDS and, for…
Eat Less, Live longer, Remember More?
The practice of calorific restriction as a means to health, improved mental faculties and a longer life is controversial and two recent studies have contributed more fuel to the debate. A study carried out by scientists at the University of…
New Approach could Starve Tumour Cells to Death
Tumours are heterogeneous and contain both oxygenated and hypoxic regions. Cells in regions with low oxygen levels mainly use glucose for glycolytic energy production and release lactic acid in the process. It had been thought that tumour cells with an…
New Mechanism for Treatment of Tumours
More than 80 years ago, Nobel laureate Otto Heinrich Warburg pointed to a difference in mitochondrial energy metabolism between tumour cells and normal healthy cells. This observation led to significant advances in cancer imaging using positron emission tomography (PET) and,…
