Word: toxicants
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...trouble, says Langer, a leading innovator of drug-delivery systems, is that drugs do not stay at constant levels in the body. They typically start low, rise to a peak and then decline. When that happens, Langer says, "those peaks can sometimes be toxic and the valleys totally ineffective." He cites as examples insulin and sleeping pills: "Too much insulin can put you into a coma. Not getting enough insulin can be fatal. Too much sleeping pill can kill you. Too little, and you lie awake all night...
When scientists at Abbott Laboratories heard about Daly's research, they compared epibatidine with several hundred related compounds they had synthesized as experimental treatments for Alzheimer's disease. One of them, ABT-594, turned out to be remarkably similar but much less toxic. Tests on animals indicate that ABT-594 is about 50 times better than morphine in relieving both chronic and acute pain yet seems to be nonaddictive. Phase II tests on humans should be completed by the end of the year...
...that pump out drugs that manage to get inside." This suggests that the new drugs might be effective at lower doses, making fusion inhibitors safer for the patient in the long run. Trimeris' studies support this; so far, neither of its compounds seems to cause any of the serious toxic side effects associated with today's AIDS drugs, such as nausea, vomiting and abnormalities in fat metabolism...
About 30% of patients who begin therapy with a combination of antiviral drugs have to stop, either because their bodies cannot tolerate the toxic side effects or because they cannot keep up with the grueling regimen of strictly scheduled pill popping. An additional 30% to 50% are currently in salvage therapy, which is what AIDS specialists call the last-ditch potions of drug cocktails given to patients who have become resistant, one by one, to every class of antiviral on the market. "We have, by treating lots of individuals relatively successfully for varying periods of time, accumulated a new target...
Alzheimer's patients, beta amyloid is made by nerve cells when beta and gamma secretase execute a one-two snip that cuts a larger precursor protein into a shorter fragment. Sometimes the fragment is 40 units long, sometimes 42. The slightly longer variant, scientists have found, is directly toxic to nerve cells. Among other things, it appears to stimulate the release of oxygen free radicals, thereby setting off in the brain a destructive biochemical cascade...