European researchers harness unique properties of boron to develop new drugs and diagnostics

Researchers are on the verge of unleashing the power of the element boron in a new generation of drugs and therapies, as decades of research begins to bear fruit. Boron has to date far been one of biology’s best kept secrets, but is now attracting fast growing research interest and investment from the pharmaceutical industry in the quest for novel drugs to tackle cancer and infectious diseases, potentially overcoming limitations and side effects of current products.

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Sirtuin therapeutics for diseases of aging in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

Sirtris, a GSK company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs to treat diseases of aging such as Type 2 Diabetes, announced today that it published a new review article on the growing body of sirtuin research and its potential to treat diseases of aging such as Type 2 Diabetes, mitochondrial disorders, inflammation, cancer, and heart disease. Entitled “SIRTUINS Novel Therapeutic Targets to Treat Age-Associated Diseases,” the review appears in today’s issue of the journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.

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Anti-tumor therapy with endoscopic ultrasound may fight cancer more safely and effectively

Anti-tumor therapy guided by endoscopic ultrasound may allow doctors to fight cancer more safely and effectively

The chairman of EUS2008 today announced that investigational research on a therapeutic technique that will allow physicians to directly inject malignant tumors with cancer fighting agents from inside the body will be presented at the 16th International Symposium of Endoscopic Ultrasonography (EUS2008) in San Francisco on September 12-13. This technique, which uses a flexible gastrointestinal endoscope with a miniature ultrasound transducer on the tip to guide a small needle directly into a tumor, could prove to be a safer and more effective approach to administering chemotherapy since it allows doctors to deliver therapy right to the tumor and avoid damaging normal surrounding tissues. Injecting drugs directly into the cancer using endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in combination with systemic chemotherapy to kill cancer cells that have spread may prove to be a more effective approach to some cancers.

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Researchers identify natural tumor suppressor

Better understanding of early-stage cancer crucial to finding new therapies

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a key step in the formation and suppression of esophageal cancers and perhaps carcinomas of the breast, head, and neck. By studying human tissue samples, they found that Fbx4, a naturally occurring enzyme, plays a key role in stopping production of another protein called Cyclin D1, which is thought to contribute to the early stages of cancer development.

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