For patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), low levels of vitamin D were found to strongly predict disease severity and hasten its progression, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) investigators in collaboration with Bayer HealthCare. The findings suggest that patients in the early stages of MS could stave off disease symptoms by increasing their vitamin D intake.

As concerns about bacterial resistance to antibiotics grow, researchers are racing to find new kinds of drugs to replace ones that are no longer effective. One promising new class of molecules called acyldepsipeptides - ADEPs - kills bacteria in a way that no marketed antibacterial drug does - by altering the pathway through which cells rid themselves of harmful proteins.

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have demonstrated the power of a new drug discovery technique, which allows them to find - relatively quickly and cheaply - antibodies that have a desired effect on cells. The TSRI scientists used the technique to discover two antibodies that protect human cells from a cold virus.

Reservoirs of pharmaceuticals could be manufactured to bind specifically to infected tissue such as cancer cells for slow, concentrated delivery of drug treatments, according to new research published in ACS Macro Letters. The findings, from the University of Copenhagen and the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), came as a result of neutron reflectometry studies at the world's leading neutron source in Grenoble, France.

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have described a pair of drug candidates that advance the search for new treatments for pain, addiction and other disorders. The two new drug scaffolds, described in a recent edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, offer researchers novel tools that act on a demonstrated therapeutic target, the kappa opioid receptor (KOR), which is located on nerve cells and plays a role in the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

The diabetes drug metformin is also being tested in numerous clinical trials for treating different cancers, and several studies point to its apparent activation of a molecular regulator of cell metabolism called AMPK to suppress tumor growth. But new research appearing the week of Jan. 13 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that activation of AMPK may actually fuel cancer growth.

Artificial bone marrow may be used to reproduce hematopoietic stem cells. A prototype has now been developed by scientists of KIT, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, and Tübingen University (Germany). The porous structure possesses essential properties of natural bone marrow and can be used for the reproduction of stem cells at the laboratory. This might facilitate the treatment of leukemia in a few years.