Drug Discovery & Development Community News Round-Up

Read about the latest news in the Drug Discovery & Development community this month:

Screening for Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) Active Compounds
HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) have been used to treat neurological symptoms, as well as cancers, parasitic conditions and inflammatory diseases. In order to find compounds that are potential inhibitors of HDAC activity (Class I and II), a chemiluminescent Proof-of-Concept Screen was performed on the PHERAstar FS microplate reader from BMG LABTECH.

Screening and Identification of Potential Genotoxic Degradation Impurities using Q-TOF LC/MS with Advanced Software Solutions
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to monitor and identify genotoxic impurities at low levels. This application note demonstrates a quick and reliable software-assisted solution for screening and identifying trace-level potential genotoxic epoxide degradants from atorvastatin using MS/MS data. The method demonstrates mass-based fraction collection of a genotoxic impurity for further characterization. It is standard practice to study the stability profile of a drug substance under predetermined stress conditions. Oxidative degradation of some drugs during handling or storage can lead to the formation of genotoxic impurities.

PathHunter® β-Arrestin Human and Ortholog GPCR Assays
This application note describes the suitability of the DiscoveRx PathHunter β-Arrestin human and ortholog GPCR assay kits for automation in 384-well plate format, with liquid handling and detection integrated in a single instrument, the Tecan Fluent laboratory automation solution.

Targeted Lipidomics of Oxylipins (Oxygenated Fatty Acids)
Discover how to quickly analyse those lipidomics targets, using a high-throughput assay of over 100 oxylipins, including prostaglandins, prostacyclines, thromboxanes, dihydroprostaglandins, and isoprostanes, in both human and mouse plasma.

Could ‘Onion’ Vesicles Revolutionize Drug Delivery?
A research group led by Professor Virgil Percec, of the Department of Chemistry in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, has successfully replicated the vesicle-like properties of a cell membrane. Such a structure opens up possibilities of releasing drugs over longer periods of time, with a new dose in each layer, or even putting a cocktail of drugs in different layers so each is released in sequence.

Revolutionary Nanoparticle Based Drug Delivery – Targeted Cancer Therapeutics Interview
Interview - Scientists have recently developed nanoparticles that deliver one or two chemotherapy drugs, but it has been difficult to design particles that can carry any more than that in a precise ratio. In a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, chemistry researchers from MIT have shown that they can load nanoparticles with three commonly used ovarian cancer therapeutics.

JumpStart! - Modernizing the Drug Review Process
The JumpStart service is a new Food and Drug Standards (FDA) initiative aimed at modernizing the drug review process. Medical reviewers are using this service to quickly and thoroughly assess data from drug clinical trials, ensuring safe and effective products are approved for public use.