Challenges facing liposome-based targeted delivery of antithrombotic drugs

Haemorrhage is a major risk factor associated with administration of thrombolytic protein drugs. In vivo stability with conventional parenteral administration also remains a concern due to the intrinsic nature of thrombolytic protein drugs. Liposome-based delivery systems have been applied to other drugs in order to reduce toxicity, increase site specific action and protect against protein denaturation, but does the same apply to thrombolytic protein drugs and to what extent? Can liposome-based thrombolytic preparations reap the full benefits of this delivery system?

In the review article entitled “Liposomes for targeted delivery of antithrombotic drugs” Elbayoumi & Torchilin review the major work to date on liposome-based delivery of antithrombotic drugs to vascular pathology sites and provide their own perspective on the future of the field.

Will genomic technologies change the landscape of toxicology research?

With so many drug failures due to toxicity concerns, the development of more effective approaches to toxicity testing is of utmost importance. In their recent review “Systems biology and functional genomics approaches for the identification of cellular responses to drug toxicity,” Rusyn and Hege Harrill put forward the view that systems toxicology ‘offers the promise of more accurate predictions of adverse health effects in humans.’ They conclude that ‘Translational research bridging rodent and human toxicity will be the key to the success of this field.’ What will the impact of such approaches be on current gold standard? How widely used will they become?

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CXCR4 antogonists

Several CCR5 antagonists, which inhibit the entry of HIV-1 in the host cell, have proven a valuable strategy for the treatment of AIDS. However, the virus can switch to the CXCR4 co-receptor to enter cells, thus prompting the need for CXCR4 antagonists.
In a review published in the January issue of Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, Dr Liotta explores the preclinical development of such compounds, and finds that this relatively recent field could offer therapeutic options in several disease areas.

Profile: Dimitri Mikhailidis

It seems appropriate that our first profile for the Informa Pharmaceutical Science blog should feature Dr. Dimitri P. Mikhailidis. Dimitri is currently Editor-In-Chief of four journals published by Informa Pharmaceutical Science: Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, and Current Medical Research and Opinion. Beyond Dimitri's editorial role, he has been an author on numerous original research articles, reviews, and editorials, with over 60 published articles in Expert Opinion and CMRO since 2000. Lest we give the impression that Dimitri favours our journals over others click here to see his 600+ Pubmed listings.

Dimitri is currently the Academic Head & Honorary Consultant to the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Royal Free University College Medical School, University College London, and he holds Visiting Professor positions at Robert Gordon University (Scotland) and University of Ioannina Medical School (Greece). Dimitri has travelled widely to present his research, having lectured in 40 countries around the world. Beyond the editorial posts he holds with the Informa Pharmaceutical Science journals, Dimitri is also Editor-in-Chief of four other medical journals, and holds other editorial positions with several more. And sometimes, apparently, he eats and sleeps, although we have no empirical evidence to support this claim.

Research by Dimitri and his network of collaborators primarily focuses on treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease, and Dimitri was awarded the British Medical Association (BMA) award for vascular research in 1995. His articles cover a broad spectrum of topics: many are written with an eye towards utility for current clinicians, some cast needed attention on new promising therapies in the drug development pipeline, while still others focus on future directions for research in cardiovascular disease. A notable recent paper published in EOP, authored by Dimitri and his colleague Martin Press from the Royal Free Hospital, reviewed the importance of targeting multiple risk factors, including both traditional and novel cardiometabolic factors, in the prevention of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes (available for free download). In another recent publication, an editorial commentary in the March 2008 issue of CMRO, Dimitri and his colleagues present an interesting discussion on how age affects how cholesterol levels can and should be used to predict vascular risk and the implications for elderly patients (available for free download).

Dimitri's most recent article, an editorial in CMRO, is likely to create some waves in the cardiovascular community. The editorial focuses on the growing controversy over the potential danger of abruptly stopping statin use in high-risk patients. Instead of giving away the punchline, read the paper for free here.

How Evolutionary Biology Can Help Design Novel Anti-Viral Drugs

While the concept of evolutionary medicine has been around for well over fifty years, the collaboration between evolutionary biology and medical research has proven less profitable than was predicted by early proponents of the field. However, recent efforts to fight rapidly evolving infectious viral pathogens have been increasingly relying on the underlying understanding of viral evolution in order to design more effective antiviral drugs. Esteban Domingo and his colleagues in a recent perspective for Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy entitled "Future prospects for the treatment of rapidly evolving viral pathogens: insights from evolutionary biology" review the promise of drug design informed by evolutionary biology for overcoming viral escape mutations.

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Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery indexed by ISI

We are delighted to announce that Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery is now indexed on ISI web of Science.

What is the goal of virtual screening?

In a recent paper entitled "What has virtual screening ever done for drug discovery?", editorial board member David Clark discusses virtual screening achievements based on hits that made their way to the clinic. No less than seven very polarized sets of peer review comments proved the approach controversial, and one can bet that the question whether virtual screening aims at identifying preclinical hits or clinical candidates will continue to be debated among readers, as the article entered the top 20 most downloaded papers across the Expert Opinion series in August.

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Expert Opinion to use Manuscript Central

In an effort to facilitate the copy flow administration, the Expert Opinion series will start in the next few weeks to use the online Manuscript Central platform to manage its pipeline of articles from commission to pre-production.

This system will semi-automatically move manuscripts through the different editorial processes, while making the data and documents directly available online to authors, commissioning editors, editorial assistants and referees.

Authors will be expected to submit their paper online at the following addresses:

• Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eobt
• Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eodc
• Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eodd
• Expert Opinion on Medical Diagnostics http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eodg
• Expert Opinion on Drug Safety http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eods
• Expert Opinion on Emerging Drugs http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eoed
• Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eoid
• Expert Opinion on Drug Metabolism and Toxicology http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eomt
• Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eoop
• Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eotp
• Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/eott

As always, the editorial team remains contactable directly and will work closely with authors and referees.

New Hope for Old Chemotherapy?

While the vast majority of cancer research focuses on new therapeutic approaches, recent research on an unrelated topic has revealed new potential for old chemotherapy techniques. Anti-aging research by Valter Longo and colleagues at the University of Southern California chanced upon the idea while studying the effects differential stress resistance brought on by fasting. The groundbreaking study, published recently by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that fasting before chemotherapy has the potential to protect healthy cells from the deleterious effects of broad-spectrum chemotherapy, while cancer cells remain susceptible. Expert Opinion author Antonio Russo has reviewed this research and the potential for further development of this concept in a recent article in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets.

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Expert Opinion 2007 Impact Factors

The 2007 ISI Impact Factors have just been released, and Expert Opinion has had a good year. Expert Opinion on Emerging Drugs has now received its first Impact Factor, emerging with a strong first showing of 2.725. Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets enjoyed the greatest increase from 2006, jumping from 2.662 to 3.333, while Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs continues to have the highest Impact Factor and total citations among the Expert Opinion journals.

Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs: 3.667 (up from 3.174)
Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets: 3.333 (up from 2.662)
Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy: 2.815 (up from 2.705)
Expert Opinion on Emerging Drugs: 2.725 (first Impact factor for EOED)
Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy: 1.703
Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents: 1.589 (up from 1.488)