Drugs
purepedantry | February 7, 2008The results from Heath Ledger's autopsy came out today. Though the doses of the drugs have not been released, it appears that he died from combining drugs with similar effects rather than an overdose of a single drug:
Among the drugs found in Mr. Ledger's system were two widely prescribed narcotics: oxycodone, the main ingredient in the prescription drug OxyContin, and hydrocodone, the principal pain reliever in the prescription drug Vicodin.
Also in Mr. Ledger's system were three anti-anxiety medications: diazepam, the generic name for Valium; alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax; and…
chrisdrudge | February 6, 2008Marneros A, Gutmann P, Uhlmann F. Self-amputation of penis and tongue after use of Angel's Trumpet. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2006 Oct;256(7):458-9. Epub 2006 Jun 16.
Kids, this is why you should just bite the bullet and fork out the necessary cash for some quality bud instead of cheaping out and making tea from some plant you found growing in your backyard.
moleculeoftheday | February 5, 2008As I've mentioned before, I'm a booster for DNA G-quadruplexes as drug targets. While telomeres might not be the best target, there are lots of potentially oncogenically relevant quadruplexes. Here is the only quadruplex-targeting antineoplastic that's made it into the clinic that I know of.
Quarfloxin, predictably, has a large aromatic surface area and a chirally disposed positive charge - perfect for targeting a groove or loop. It has shown great promise in early clinical work (it's currently in phase II) - I am rooting for the class!
revere | January 29, 2008Since the antiviral agent oseltamivir (Tamiflu) has been touted as the global savior should a bird flu pandemic materialize the idea has been haunted by the specter of Tamiflu resistance. What if H5N1 becomes resistant to the drug? Is all lost? Now it is being reported in the media that the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the predominant circulating seasonal flu virus in Europe this year, H1N1, is showing an unexpectedly high rate of Tamiflu resistance (19/148 isolates tested). This is much more than what has been seen in the past and was from patients not…
mikethemadbiologist | January 28, 2008Say hello to the Office on National Drug Control Policy and to faith-based drug overdose prevention. One public health intervention that saves lives is the distribution of Narcan nasal sprays to drug users:
The nasal spray is a drug called naloxone, or Narcan. It blocks the brain receptors that heroin activates, instantly reversing an overdose.
Doctors and emergency medical technicians have used Narcan for years in hospitals and ambulances. But it doesn't require much training because it's impossible to overdose on Narcan.
The Cambridge program began putting Narcan kits into drug users'…
moleculeoftheday | January 15, 2008A few months ago, a group published a report that this polyamine was an effective quadruplex ligand, inducing senescence of cancer cells.
It's perhaps unsurprising that this works. I've previously covered Telomestatin (more selective) and TMPyP4 (less selective), but man, just a big charged chain of stuff? Apparently, though, this molecule is used in vivo already, in chelating copper ions in the treatment of Wilson's disease.
moleculeoftheday | January 14, 2008I love the story of valproate. About fifty years ago, an investigator was using a fatty carboxylic acid as a delivery vehicle for antiseizure medications. He looked at it alone in controls and, lo and behold, it was a drug on its own:
It's a humbling reminder to anyone who's ever designed a drug: we are not as S-M-R-T as we think we are.
mikethemadbiologist | January 4, 2008PhRMA, the lobbying group for the pharmaceutical companies, claims that drug companies spend more on research than on advertising. A recent study from PLoS Medicine debunks this claim:
The value of our estimate over these others is that it is not based on extrapolating from annual reports of firms that are both diversified and multinational. Our estimate is driven by quantifiable data from highly reliable sources and concerns only the promotion of pharmaceutical products in the US. The derivation of our figure is thus transparent and can form the basis for a vigorous debate.
From this new…
sb admin | December 28, 2007Brain Candy, a film by Toronto's sketch comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, is a satirical take on drug development. A scientist creates an antidepressant (Gleemonex) that evokes the happiest memory of the consumer, recreating that joy in the present. Gleemonex becomes a big success, until it all goes horribly wrong... a very funny film.
Here's a holiday-related clip in which the first test subject takes the drug. We see the capsule enter her system after she swallows it, then the drug reaches her brain and takes effect. Her happiest memory is a Christmas visit from her son and his family. "…
revere | December 21, 2007Being a poultry worker, in any country is not wonderful. There's the risk of bird flu, of course. And lots of opportunity to be seriously injured. And its strenuous, difficult, low paying and dirty work, which is why it employs so many undocumented workers.
It also turns out it is a great way to pick up drug resistant E. coli:
Poultry workers in the United States are 32 times more likely to carry E. coli bacteria resistant to the commonly used antibiotic, gentamicin, than others outside the poultry industry, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg…
sb admin | December 20, 2007Fortune has announced the year's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, including Prozac for dogs.
"Thank God. We've been so worried since Lucky dyed his hair jet black and started listening to the Smiths."
"Eli Lilly wins FDA approval to put Prozac into chewable, beef-flavored pills to treat separation anxiety in dogs."
It's not just dogs - cats are treated with SSRI antidepressants, along with psychotherapy. If treatment fails to calm behaviour, the next step is neutering. Imagine that veterinary approach integrating with current practices for humans. Patients who have trouble with adhering to…
sb admin | December 18, 2007The Onion shares news of a drug designed to alleviate distrust of drug manufacturers.
"Out of a test group of 180, 172 study participants reported a dramatic rise in their passion for pharmaceutical companies," said Pfizer director of clinical research Suzanne Frost. "And 167 asked their doctors about a variety of prescription medications they had seen on TV."
Frost said a small percentage of test subjects showed an interest in becoming lobbyists for one of the top five pharmaceutical companies, and several browsed eBay for drug-company apparel.
PharmAmorin, available in 100-, 200-, and 400-…
purepedantry | December 14, 2007An investigative report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer looks at the FDA Fast Track. For those who don't know, the FDA Fast Track was created to accelerate the drug approval process for drugs targeted at under-treated diseases. Yet there is a bit of debate about whether Fast Track drugs are approved more quickly or are more likely to be approved than other drugs.
However, this report suggests that news that a drug has been Fast Tracked has created buying frenzies on Wall Street that have made people a lot of money:
Overall, since 1998, Fast Track announcements for nearly 200 drug treatments…
sb admin | December 10, 2007 This will probably never be made into an anti-drug ad campaign, but I can't imagine a stronger deterrent.
Angel's Trumpet is a flower that contains scopolamine and other alkaloids. It's known as a "biogenic drug" and presumed by naive recreational drug users to be harmless because it's a plant. However, it can cause psychosis, delirium, visual hallucinations, agitation, incoherence, aggressive behaviour, memory problems and "convulsive sobbing" as well as somatic symptoms and well, things like this incident.
A case study describes an 18-year-old male with no history of mental disorders who…
moleculeoftheday | December 4, 2007Anaesthetics are weird. Much of what we use has a paucity of the oxygens and nitrogens that seems to make most drugs work, and there's been substantial puzzlement and handwringing over exactly how some of these things work. Xenon, for example, is a fine anaesthetic that is, of course, comprised of a single atom. Similarly, highly halogenated molecules that are otherwise uninteresting are common.
Propofol is used in an IV emulsion (an intimate, homogeneous mixture of water and oil, like ranch dressing, or GOJO). The milky color of the product is the origin of the nickname in the title - "Milk…
revere | December 4, 2007
If you need the antibiotic ciprofloxacin ("cipro") (famous for its use as prophylactic agent for those potentially exposed to weaponized anthrax in 2001), I know where you can find a lot of it. In Patancheru, India, near Hyderabad, one of the world's centers for production of generic drugs. Most of the cipro made there is shipped out, but it turns out a lot of cipro stays behind, in the sewage of Patancheru. A paper by Larsson et al. (Journal of Hazardous Materials 148 (2007) 751-755; hat tip SusieF) found the highest levels in sewage effluent of pharmaceuticals of any yet reported. The…
moleculeoftheday | November 19, 2007Smoking cessation is tricky business - most of the time, people have used nicotine replacement therapy (the patch, the gum, etc) or CNS active drugs (like Wellbutrin/Zyban/Bupropion). None of it works that well - the manufacturers of today's molecule, Chantix, considered it news to brag about when its patients managed to quit smoking at 44% over 12 weeks (vs 18% for placebo recipients).
Chantix, however, works on a different mechanism, so it's at least notable. It's a partial agonist-antagonist - that is, it tickles the relevant receptor a little, but also blocks action at that receptor. In…
sb admin | November 16, 2007
Anti-drug ad parody that's also an anti-drug ad itself. This is Your Brain on Heroin: Any Questions?.