Biological targeting

Asthma therapies get personal

A new crop of biologic drugs promises to usher asthma treatment into the realm of personalised medicine.…

Scientists develop hydrogel to directly target disease sites in inflammatory bowel disease

Researchers have developed a hydrogel that selectively delivers drugs to inflamed tissue, which could pave the way for improved treatment options for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study published in Science Translational Medicine.…

Antimalaria drugs could be an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease

Two antimalarials were found to activate a receptor in the brain that is involved in protecting neurons that are lost in Parkinson’s disease.…

Attacking cancer: are therapeutic vaccines on the verge of fulfilling their potential?

Researchers are investigating whether priming the immune system with therapeutic vaccines can prompt the body’s own defences to spring into action against cancer.…

Repositioning existing drugs for cancer treatment

Scientists are using systematic approaches to identify non-oncology drugs that can be used to treat cancer, but access to drugs and commercial challenges are hindering progress.…

PCSK9 inhibitor evolocumab gets green light for European approval

The first monoclonal antibody for treating high cholesterol and the first PCSK9 inhibitor is set to launch following a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency.…

Systematic review suggests mortality benefits of new cholesterol lowering biologics

Monoclonal antibodies designed to lower cholesterol by inhibiting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) are effective and associated with few major side effects.…

Tau oligomers targeted with promising Alzheimer’s therapy

Scientists report promising early findings with an anti-tau oligomer specific monoclonal antibody that reversed memory deficits in mice with Alzheimer’s disease.…

Hodgkin’s lymphoma therapy improves survival in hard-to-treat cases

Brentuximab vedotin (BV) has shown “remarkable” efficacy when used after autologous stem-cell transplantation in patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.…

Researchers develop test that predicts severe immune reaction to biologics

A test that uses cells from a single donor’s blood to predict whether a new drug will cause a severe immune reaction in humans has been developed by researchers at Imperial College London.…