FDA Approves Gleevec for Expanded Use in Patients with Rare Gastrointestinal Cancer

In continuation of my update on imatinib...

FDA Approves Gleevec for Expanded Use in Patients with Rare Gastrointestinal Cancer: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today granted Gleevec (imatinib) regular approval for use in adult patients following surgical removal of CD117-positive gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Today’s action also highlights an increase in...

FDA Approves Jentadueto ((linagliptin/metformin hydrochloride)).....

In continuation of my update on linagliptin and metformin hydrochloride

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Jentadueto (linagliptin/metformin hydrochloride) tablets, a new tablet combining the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, linagliptin, and metformin. Jentadueto provides a new, single-tablet treatment option, taken twice-daily, for patients who need to control their blood sugar. Linagliptin (5 mg, once-daily) is marketed in the U.S. as Tradjenta (linagliptin) tablets....

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FDA Approves Jentaduet ((sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride (HCl) )...

In continuation of my update on sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride (HCl)

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved JANUMET^® XR    ((sitagliptin and metformin hydrochloride (HCl) ) extended-release) tablets, a new treatment for type 2 diabetes that combines sitagliptin, which is the active component of JANUVIA^® (sitagliptin), with extended-release metformin. JANUMET XR provides a convenient once-daily treatment option for healthcare providers and patients who need help to control their blood sugar.

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Study shows grape seed extract kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells

A study by researchers lead by Dr.Rajesh Agarwal,  shows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. "It's a rather dramatic effect," says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Grape seed extract creates these conditions that are unfavorable to growth. Specifically, the paper shows that grape seed extract both damages cancer cells' DNA (via increased reactive oxygen species) and stops the pathways that allow repair (as seen by decreased levels of the DNA repair molecules Brca1 and Rad51 and DNA repair foci).

 "Yet we saw absolutely no toxicity to the mice, themselves," Agarwal says.

Interestingly,  the grape seed extract killed the cancer cells but not the healthy cells. As per the lead reseacher,  the  cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable  and one can  target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells," adds Agarwal.

The Agarwal Lab hopes to move in the direction of clinical trials of grape seed extract, potentially as an addition to second-line therapies that target head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that has failed a first treatment.

Ref :  http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/11/1869.abstract?sid=90421d40-8cea-478e-8d70-f5a17c4158b7

Tea could help lower high blood pressure: Study

In continuation of my update on tea and its effect....

A new study suggests that taking tea daily could help in lowering blood pressure.The study shows that people who drank three cups of black tea a day were able to lower their blood pressure. This was seen when compared to those who drank a placebo similar in taste and caffeine content. Those who drank the tea saw a slight drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure over six months.

Experts however warned that drinking tea is not a substitute for blood pressure-lowering medication, but researchers said the findings show tea could still provide a benefit.

Researchers note that although the study cannot identify specific components of the tea that might lead to a drop in blood pressure, past studies have shown flavonoids, compounds found in many plants such as tea, are good for heart health.

“The message really isn't for an individual to go out and drink a lot of tea,” said Jonathan Hodgson,

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Preliminary findings suggest a drug used to treat   cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes  disease might also reduce painful flare-ups in gout patients starting new medication regimens.

In a new study, the protein-inhibitor drug rilonacept (Arcalyst) appeared to markedly lower the risk of gout flare-ups during the first few months of treatments aimed at lowering uric acid levels.

"To reduce deposits of crystals in the joints, we advise patients to initiate treatment with medications that lower levels of uric acid in the blood," study author Dr. H. Ralph Schumacher 

The researchers wanted to learn if rilonacept could lower this short-term risk for by neutralizing a specific target protein -- interleukin 1 or IL-1 -- before it initiates inflammation.

They looked at 83 gout patients in 27 U.S. study centers who had a history of gout flare-ups and high levels of uric acid. All were placed on a chronic uric-acid lowering regimen of the standard drug allopurinol.

About half were also given an initial double-dose injection of rilonacept (320 milligrams) followed by a single dose for 16 weeks. The other half received sugar pills.

Rilonacept patients were less likely to have flare-ups, with 15 percent experiencing flare-ups three-months into the study compared with 45 percent among the non-rilonacept group, the researchers found....

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FDA Approves Inlyta for advanced kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma)

The U.S. FDA,  approved Inlyta (axitinib) to treat patients with advanced kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) who have not responded to another drug for this type of cancer. 

The safety and effectiveness of Inlyta were evaluated in a single randomized, open-label, multi-center clinical study of 723 patients whose disease had progressed on or after treatment with one prior systemic therapy. The study was designed to measure progression-free survival, the time a patient lived without the cancer progressing. Results showed a median progression-free survival of 6.7 months compared to 4.7 months with a standard treatment (sorafenib).

The most common side effects observed in greater than 20 percent of patients in the clinical study were diarrhea, high blood pressure (hypertension), fatigue, decreased appetite, nausea, loss of voice (dysphonia), hand-foot syndrome (palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia), weight loss, vomiting, weakness (asthenia) and constipation.

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FDA Approves BYDUREON™ -- The First and Only Once-Weekly Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes

In continuation of my up date on Exenatide...

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Alkermes plc today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Bydureon  (exenatide extended-release for injectable suspension) – the first once-weekly treatment for type 2 diabetes. Bydureon is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes in multiple clinical settings....

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Drug May Slow Early Prostate Cancer: Study

In continuation of my update on Dutasteride (Avodaart)

New research suggests that Avodart, a drug used to treat an enlarged prostate gland, may help slow the progression of early stage prostate cancer, reducing the need for aggressive treatment in some men. 

Avodart belongs to a class of drugs called 5-alpha reductase inhibitors. These drugs work by interfering with the effects of certain male hormones on the prostate. In the three-year study, prostate cancer progressed in 38 percent of 144 men with early prostate cancer who were treated with Avodart and 48 percent of the 145 men who received a placebo....

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Could 'Magic' Mushrooms Ease Depression?

Psychedelic mushrooms (see above picture) may point to new ways to treat depression, suggest two small brain imaging studies that seem to show how psilocybin (see right structure) the active ingredient in such mushrooms -affects the brain. 

One study included 30 healthy people who had psilocybin inserted into their blood while magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners measured changes in their brain activity. The scans revealed that psilocybin caused decreased activity in what the researchers described as the brain's "hub" regions -- areas especially well-connected with other areas.

The second study included 10 healthy volunteers and found that psilocybin boosted their recall of personal memories and their emotional well-being for up to two weeks. The researchers said this suggests that psilocybin might prove useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

"Psychedelics are thought of as 'mind-expanding' drugs, so it has commonly been assumed that they work by increasing brain activity, but surprisingly, we found that psilocybin actually caused activity to decrease in areas that have the densest connections with other areas," Nutt said....

Researchers lead by Dr.David Nutt, add that result is consistent with earlier finding that psilocybin decreases mPFC activity, as many effective depression treatments do. The effects need to be investigated further and this study was only a small study, and  are interested in exploring psilocybin's potential as a therapeutic tool.....

Experimental Drug Might Help Some a Bit With Colon Cancer

In continuation of my update on regorafenib

 

The experimental cancer drug regorafenib appears to extend survival slightly in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, a new trial indicates.

 

Regorafenib is a so-called multikinase inhibitor, which targets several of the ways cancer develops and grows, researchers said.

"The drug was tested on patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who had progressed after standard therapies, meaning they had no treatment options available," lead researcher Dr. Axel Grothey, a professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic. 

The investigators found that patients taking regorafenib survived an average of 6.4 months, compared with five months for those receiving a placebo -- an increase in survival of 29 percent.

In addition, 44 percent of the patients taking regorafenib responded to the drug or had their cancer slowed, compared with 15 percent of the patients receiving placebo, they reported.

 

Ref : http://gicasym.org/GastrointestinalCancersSymposiumDailyNews/GI385.aspx

New Drug Combo for Hepatitis C Shows Promise...

A new cocktail of two investigational drugs appears to have successfully cleared the hepatitis C virus in people who don't respond to standard treatment. What's more, the approach seems to work without the need for injections with interferon alpha, an onerous medication that causes serious side effects in many patients.

"We saw a sustained virologic response -- the virus was undetectable in the patients -- during treatment and remained undetectable after the drugs were stopped," said study author Dr. Anna Lok, director of clinical hepatology at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

The study had two arms:  a group of 10 patients received four medications, including the two investigational drugs, the antivirals daclatasvir (see right structure)  and asunaprevir (see left structure-courtesy: ChemSpider), along with the standard treatment combination of interferon and ribavirin. The other arm of the study included 11 patients who received only the two investigational drugs. Both groups underwent treatment for 24 weeks.

The 10 patients on the four-drug regimen experienced a sustained virologic response with undetectable virus at the end of treatment and again at 12 weeks beyond their treatment, the researchers reported. In the two-drug group, four of the 11 patients also had undetectable levels of the hepatitis C virus in their blood 12 weeks after treatment ended.

"The four-drug arm was very impressive. These patients had not shown a response before and now we get a 90 to 100 percent rate of sustained response," said Lok....

Ref : http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1104430

More Evidence for Oxaliplatin as Colon Cancer Chemotherapy

In continuation of my update on Oxaliplatin 

Adding oxaliplatin to a standard chemotherapy regimen boosts survival rates for patients with advanced colon cancer, according to a new study that bolsters previous research on the drug by looking at a broader group of patients.

In past studies, oxaliplatin, as an adjuvant to the established treatment of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), improved survival by up to 23 percent. But the new study looked at a different group of colon cancer patients, who were older, sicker, more racially diverse and had never participated in a controlled clinical study.

To determine whether oxaliplatin would show a similar benefit among a "real-world" population of patients, the authors sifted through five cancer registries containing survival information on more than 4,000 people with stage 3 colon cancer. All were younger than 75, and all had begun chemotherapy -- either a standard regimen or in combination with oxaliplatin -- within four months of having surgery between 2004 and 2009.

Researchers lead by Dr.Hanna K. Sanoff compared their survival rates with those of nearly 8,300 patients who had participated in one of five different clinical trials using oxaliplatin.

The addition of oxaliplatin to standard chemotherapy protocols was found to be just as effective in prolonging survival among the community-based set of patients - including the elderly, minorities and those with additional complicating health issues  who were not enrolled in studies.

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Voraxaze receives FDA approval for treatment of toxic methotrexate levels

Voraxaze receives FDA approval for treatment of toxic methotrexate levels: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Voraxaze (see structure, glucarpidase) to treat patients with toxic levels of methotrexate in their blood due to kidney failure.  

Anti-malaria drug synthesised with the help of oxygen and light

In continuation of my update, artemisinin... The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing countries at an affordable price. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Freie Universität Berlin have developed a very simple process for the synthesis of artemisinin, the active ingredient that pharmaceutical companies could only obtain from plants up to now. The chemists use a waste product from current artemisinin production as their starting substance. This substance can also be produced biotechnologically in yeast, which the scientists convert into the active ingredient using a simple yet very ingenious method..... Look at http://www.mpg.de/4984709/artemisinin_malaria