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http://news.oneindia.in/2010/12/08/newdiscovery-shows-promise-against-parkinsonsalzheimers.html

New discovery shows promise against Parkinson's, Alzheimer's
Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 16:00 [IST]

Washington, Dec 8 (ANI): Scientists have discovered a family of small molecules that holds promise in protecting brain cells against nerve-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's.esearchers at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) and The University of Texas at Dallas, who made the discovery, are still conducting trials on humans.

EncephRx, a biotechnology and therapeutics company, will develop drug therapies based on the new class of compounds as a pharmaceutical for preventing nerve-cell damage, delaying onset of degenerative nerve disease and improving symptoms
.

If proved effective and nontoxic in humans, EncephRx's small-molecule pharmaceuticals would be the first therapeutic tools able to stop affected brain cells from dying.

"Our compounds protect against neurodegeneration in mice. Given successful development of the compounds into drug therapies, they would serve as an effective treatment for patients with degenerative brain diseases," said Edward R. Biehl of the SMU.

"Additional research needs to be done, but these compounds have the potential for stopping or slowing the relentless loss of brain cells in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," said Santosh R. D'Melloof the UT Dallas.

The most promising lead compound, designated HSB-13, was tested in Huntington's disease animal models. It not only reduced degeneration in a part of the forebrain but also improved behavioural performance while proving nontoxic.

The compound also was efficacious in a commonly used fly model of Alzheimer's disease.

The findings were published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research. (ANI)

 

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Single-Dose Highly Promising Malaria Drug Discovered by AstraZenica Bangalore
Bangalore-based AstraZeneca in association with global pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, Columbia University and Harvard Medical School has come out with a malaria drug triaminopyrimidine (TAP) to kill malaria-causing parasite 'plasmodium falciparum' quickly and also answers drug-resistent types.

AstraZeneca India has carried out the research with funding from Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a non-profit Swiss foundation and the new drug TAP is currently undergoing pre-clinical evaluation to be carried out in human clinical trials in a year's time, according to Microfinance Monitor.

Shahul Hameed and Suresh Solapure, team leaders at the erstwhile AstraZeneca Research India and first authors of the paper and the experiment involved about 50 scientists, revealed Vasan Sambandamurthy, another lead author to Pharmabiz.

"TAPs offer the potential for single dose cure in combination with suitable partner drugs. The compound has a novel mechanism of action. It is active against multiple strains of plasmodium falciparum resistant to currently available anti-malarials in the market as well as novel anti-malarials in clinical development," said Shahul Hameed and Suresh Solapure.

The study, titled "Triaminopyrimidine is a fast-killing and long-acting anti-malarial clinical candidate", has been published in Nature Communications.

The scientists screened around 5,00,000 small molecules from the AZ collection and prioritized TAPs as promising lead series for further evaluation that zeroed in on MMV253 from TAPs series as a candidate drug with its ideal properties such as "novel chemical class, novel mechanism of action, fast kill in-vitro and in-vivo, predicted long half-life in humans and good safety margins in rats and guinea pigs," explained Dr Sambandamurthy.

A single dose of 260 mg is enough to maintain therapeutic blood concentration for 4-5 days and given in combination with another drug, "compound 12"³ is predicted to cure patients in a single-dose treatment, the said.

Toxicity tests in mice for cardiovascular effects showed that the compound 12 drug has better safety levels, said the paper. Malaria killed 584,000 people across the world in 2013.

Single-Dose Highly Promising Malaria Drug Discovered by AstraZenica Bangalore / Sputnik India English - News, Opinion, Radio