Mini lung organoids replicate COVID-19 pathology in a dish 20 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) Scientists developed a new culture technique for alveolospheres which they used to study how alveolar cells respond to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Researchers identify potential compound to inhibit inflammation 20 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) Researchers have found a compound that can prevent up-regulation of CD14, a key inflammatory protein, in cells.
£4 million in funding announced to collect data on COVID-19 antibodies 19 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) UKRI will provide £4 million in funding to establish a data infrastructure for scientists in the UK to study antibodies from COVID-19 patient samples.
CRISPR-based treatment successfully targets glioblastoma and ovarian cancers in vivo 19 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) Researchers say this is the first time that CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing has been used to treat cancer effectively in a living animal and that the technique could be revolutionary.
Researchers identify three drugs that could be repurposed for COVID-19 19 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) The candidates were screened based on their similarity to hydroxychloroquine and tested for efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.
Potential strategy to treat COVID-19-related cytokine storms identified 19 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) Researchers have found that neutralising antibodies for the TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma cytokines can prevent death from SARS-CoV-2 in mice.
Novel synthetic method enables production of cytotoxic compounds 18 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) Researchers say their new process enables the synthesis of phenazinones, some of which have high selective toxicity for cancer cells and could be promising anticancer drugs in future.
PI3K signalling pathway revealed as potential drug target for obesity 18 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) Researchers have found that the PI3K signalling pathway could be targeted to prevent liptoxicity and combat obesity.
Scalable method to image protein levels and changes developed 18 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) Using a new CRISPR-Cas9 tagging strategy, researchers have developed a method that enables the imaging of hundreds of proteins in parallel.
Hepatitis C drugs could combat SARS-CoV-2, researchers find 17 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) Researchers have identified hepatitis C drugs that can inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, which enables the coronavirus to reproduce.
Novel technique reveals Parkinson’s changes how neurons sense oxygen 17 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) The new approach enables researchers to isolate brain cells associated with Parkinson's disease and study their gene expression patterns.
CBD molecule has potential to treat rare skin diseases, study shows 17 November 2020 | By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review) Researchers have found that CBD induces an enzyme with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in the top layer of the skin.
COVID-19 vaccine tablet significantly reduces viral load in hamsters 17 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) Hamster challenge study results suggests the oral COVID-19 vaccine induces a robust immune response, protecting the animals from infection.
LMTK3 inhibitors could be an effective breast cancer therapy, say scientists 16 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) Researchers demonstrate that inhibiting the LMTK3 kinase is an effective anticancer strategy in murine models of breast cancer.
Primate model used to explore features of SARS-CoV-2 infection 16 November 2020 | By Hannah Balfour (Drug Target Review) The non-human primate model exhibited a COVID-19-like disease and showed how symptoms and viral activity change over the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
