Table of contents
July 2007 Vol 6 No 7
In this issue
p501 | doi:10.1038/nrd2376
Editorial: Common goals
p503 | doi:10.1038/nrd2377
News and Analysis
Diabetes drugs under scrutiny in a post-Vioxx world | PDF (456 KB)
p505 | doi:10.1038/nrd2371
News Feature
'Back to the future' for Chinese herbal medicines | PDF (456 KB)
p506 | doi:10.1038/nrd2350
News in Brief
Genome-wide association study identifies 24 links to common diseases | Pfizer changes two key leadership positions | NICE recommend innovative approach to allow prescription of Velcade | FDA advisory committee to address risk communication | Questions remain over safety of obesity drug Acomplia | PDF (307 KB)
p508 | doi:10.1038/nrd2373
Patent watch
An Audience With
Joseph DiMasi | PDF (103 KB)
p512 | doi:10.1038/nrd2375
From the analyst's couch
Tapping the potential of fixed-dose combinations | PDF (165 KB)
p513 | doi:10.1038/nrd2334
Fresh from the Pipeline
Eculizumab | PDF (158 KB)
p515 | doi:10.1038/nrd2369
Research Highlights
Diabetes: Bypassing the side effects of thiazolidinediones? | PDF (137 KB)
p517 | doi:10.1038/nrd2363
Neurodegenerative disorders: An aid to digestion | PDF (178 KB)
p518 | doi:10.1038/nrd2362
Analgesics: Specifically attenuating pain | PDF (192 KB)
p518 | doi:10.1038/nrd2365
Drug delivery: Minicells deliver lethal load to tumours | PDF (146 KB)
p519 | doi:10.1038/nrd2366
Neurological diseases: New avenues for stroke treatment | PDF (182 KB)
p520 | doi:10.1038/nrd2364
In brief
Malaria | Cancer | Obesity and diabetes | Amyloid diseases | PDF (100 KB)
p520 | doi:10.1038/nrd2367
Perspectives
Opinion
Drug development for CNS disorders: strategies for balancing risk and reducing attrition
Menelas N. Pangalos, Lee E. Schechter & Orest Hurko
p521 | doi:10.1038/nrd2094
Few truly innovative drugs for central nervous system (CNS) disorders have been approved in recent years, suggesting that there is a need for strategies to improve the productivity of research and development in this field. The authors describe approaches that are being taken to discover CNS drugs, discuss their relative merits and consider how risk can be balanced and attrition reduced.
Essay
Governmental influences on drug development: striking a better balance
Henry I. Miller & David R. Henderson
p532 | doi:10.1038/nrd2323
There is much debate worldwide over how governmental policies affect pharmaceutical innovation. Ensuring the safety of drugs must be offset against providing timely access to potentially life-saving or life-enhancing therapies. The authors argue that there is a need for a more balanced approach to governmental interventions.
Reviews
Post-translational modifications and regulation of the RAS superfamily of GTPases as anticancer targets
Panagiotis A. Konstantinopoulos, Michalis V. Karamouzis & Athanasios G. Papavassiliou
p541 | doi:10.1038/nrd2221
Members of the RAS superfamily of monomeric GTPases are promising anticancer targets, but previous attempts to therapeutically modulate their activity, which have focused on the development of farnesyltransferase inhibitors, have not proved as successful as hoped. The authors discuss novel approaches targeting prenylation and post-prenylation modifications and the functional regulation of GDP/GTP exchange as exciting alternatives for anticancer therapy.
Utilizing RNA interference to enhance cancer drug discovery
Elizabeth Iorns, Christopher J. Lord, Nicholas Turner & Alan Ashworth
p556 | doi:10.1038/nrd2355
With the development of genome-wide RNAi approaches, the cost and time involved in target identification, validation and other aspects of drug discovery could be significantly reduced. Ashworth and colleagues review technologies available for RNAi screens and discuss how cancer drug discovery can benefit from their application.
Universal strategies in research and drug discovery based on protein-fragment complementation assays
Stephen W. Michnick, Po Hien Ear, Emily N. Manderson, Ingrid Remy & Eduard Stefan
p569 | doi:10.1038/nrd2311
Protein-fragment complementation assays (PCAs) can be used to explore the dynamics of protein–protein interactions, and regulatory responses to intrinsic or extrinsic perturbations of biochemical pathways. Michnick and colleagues discuss the rationale behind the PCA design, and its manifold applications for drug discovery.
