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Innovative partnerships among researchers, patients, regulators, payors and industry are needed to reinvigorate drug discovery for central nervous system disorders. Here, representatives of the 2013 Collegium Internationale Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum (CINP) Summit group summarize plans to achieve this goal.
Researchers from across the biomedical research community met in October to discuss solutions to the 'irreproducibility epidemic', which has been re-emphasized by new data from Novartis and Sigma-Aldrich.
Checkpoint inhibitors, which stimulate the anticancer activity of T cells, are the most advanced class of cancer immunotherapies. This analysis examines the pipeline of agents in development and their market potential.
Inhibition of E3 ubiquitin ligases, which provide substrate specificity to the ubiquitin proteasome system, is an attractive strategy to inhibit the degradation of a small subset of proteins. Skaaret al. discuss the progress that has been made in the development of therapeutic inhibitors of E3 ligases, in particular the SKP1–CUL1–F box protein (SCF) ubiquitin ligase complexes, and the challenges that lie ahead.
The failure of many clinical trials of the pioneering matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitors in oncology owing to lack of efficacy and side effects, such as musculoskeletal toxicity, reduced enthusiasm for further development of the drug class. Vandenbroucke and Libert discuss how greater knowledge of MMP biology, as well as the development of more specific MMP inhibitors, could provide new opportunities to use such agents in the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory disorders.
Mutations in components of the ERK pathway are a common occurrence in human cancer. Several drugs that target components of the ERK signalling cascade such as RAF, MEK and ERK have been approved or are in late-stage clinical development, and advances are being made in developing RAS inhibitors. Here, Samatar and Poulikakos discuss the particular challenges associated with each target and provide an overview of agents in development.
