Archive for the ‘Translational Research’ Category
Tang Prize for 2014: Immunity and Cancer
Posted in CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Discovery process, Disease Biology, Small Molecules in Development of Therapeutic Drugs, Drug Toxicity, Evolutionary cognition, Experimental validation, Human Immune System in Health and in Disease, International Global Work in Pharmaceutical, Monoclonal Immunotherapy, Pharmaceutical Analytics, Pharmacologic toxicities, Proteomics, Technology Transfer: Biotech and Pharmaceutical, Translational Effectiveness, Translational Research, Translational Science, tagged Cancer - General, Cancer immunology, chemical structure, chemo regimens, chemoresistance, immunosupression, research, T-cell biology, therapeutic toxicity reduction, Translational Research on June 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Tang Prize for 2014: Immunity and Cancer
Curator: Larry Bernstein, MD, FCAP
2014 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Sciences awards to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo For the discoveries of CTLA-4 and PD-1 as immune inhibitory molecules that led to their applications in cancer immunotherapy 2014/06/19.
Founded by Dr. Samuel Yin in December 2012, the Tang Prize recognizes scholars conducting revolutionary research in the four major fields of Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology, and the Rule of Law. The Prize is awarded with each category a cash reward of over US$1 million (NT$50 million). The Tang Prize Foundation hopes that recipients of the Prize will continue to innovate while cultivating and nurturing new talent in their respective fields.
Academia Sinica was commissioned by the Tang-Prize Foundation to administer the selection of Tang-Prize Laureates for the category of Biopharmaceutical Science, recognizing original biopharmaceutical or biomedical research that has led to significant advances towards preventing, diagnosing and/or treating major human diseases to improve human health.
James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo were chosen among nearly a hundred nominees for their discoveries of CTLA-4 and PD-1 as immune inhibitory molecules, revealing ways to harness our incredibly powerful immune system to fight cancer and marking the beginning of the immunotherapy revolution.
A critical process in the immune response involves presentation of antigens to T cells by antigen-presenting cells, two key cell types in our immune system. This process is highly regulated by molecules that stimulate the response to ensure our mounting a sufficient immune response, especially in the event of invasion by pathogens, but also by molecules that inhibit the process to ensure the response is not excessive. Indeed, there is now a family of proteins on T cells involved in this regulatory process, which is designated the “CD28 receptor family” co-receptors, as CD28 is the first protein identified to have such function. They are divided into co-receptors transmitting stimulatory signals and co-receptors transmitting inhibitory signals. Each of these has its counterpart (ligand) on antigen-presenting cells belonging to the “B7 family”. Two most prominent inhibitory receptors on T cells are called CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4, as it is first identified on cytotoxic T lymphocytes) and PD-1 (program death-1, as it is first identified to be associated with a type of cell death process called programmed cell death). Their ligands are designated as B7-1/B7-2 and PD-L1/PD-L2, respectively. These are also referred to as immune checkpoint receptors and ligands.
Our immune system is not perfect and at times, the regulatory mechanisms might be faulty, which in fact may be the basis of a variety of diseases. For example, autoimmune diseases may be related to the suppressive mechanism becoming weak and the individuals can mount excessive immune responses even to their own cells and tissues. Also, our immune system is capable of recognizing cancer cells and attacking them, in a process called immune surveillance. However, cancer cells are also equipped with machineries to evade the host anti-tumor activity, which is described as immune escape. For example, cancer cells can also express B7 family ligands on their surfaces and, by engaging the co-receptors transmitting inhibitory signals on T cells, they can inhibit the host anti-tumor T cell activity. By recognizing how cancer cells escape the immune surveillance, scientists have developed novel approaches to interfere with the ability of cancer cells to suppress the immune response, thus enhancing the ability of the host immune system to inhibit cancer cell growth.
Dr. James Allison, Chairman, Department of Immunology and Executive Director, Immunotherapy Platform at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, is one of two scientist to identify CTLA-4 as an inhibitory receptor on T-cells in 1995 and was the first to recognize it as a potential target for cancer therapy. His team then developed an antibody that blocks CTLA-4 activity and showed in 1996 that this antibody is able to help reject several different types of tumors in mouse models. This subsequently led to development of a monoclonal antibody drug, which has undergone clinical trials against stage 4 melanoma and been approved for treatment of melanoma by the U.S. FDA in 2011.
Dr. Tasuku Honjo, Professor, Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University, discovered PD-1 in 1992. His group subsequently established that PD-1 is an inhibitor regulator of the T cell response. Additional studies from his and other laboratories established that this protein plays a critical role in the regulation of tumor immunity and stimulated many groups to generate its blocker for the treatment of cancer. Antibodies against PD-1 have been approved by the U.S. FDA as an investigational new drug and developed for the treatment of cancer. One such antibody produced complete or partial responses in non-small-cell lung cancer, melanoma, and renal-cell cancer in clinical trials, and is predicted to be launched in 2015 for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer; this has been stated by some as having the potential to “change the landscape” of the treatment for lung cancer. Another antibody, shown to achieve a substantial response rate also in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, is currently in clinical trial for many types of cancers. In addition, combination therapy (anti-CTLA-4 plus anti-PD-1) has been shown to dramatically improve the long-term survival rates in cancer patients.
This is an exciting time in our fight against cancer. The discoveries by Dr. Allison and Dr. Honjo have spurred additional development of therapeutic approaches along the line of immunotherapy and brought new hope that many types of cancers can be cured.
In addition, dysregulation in immune checkpoint pathways may be intimately involved in other illnesses, such as allergy, infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Thus, the approach of targeting immune stimulatory and inhibitory molecules also promises to lead to the development of new therapies for these diseases.
Dr. Allison’s and Dr. Honjo’s discoveries have opened a new therapeutic era in medicine.
Supplementary figure:
Dr. Samuel Yin, founder of the Tang Prize, is currently chairman of the Ruentex Group and chief development officer, chief technology officer, and chief engineer of Ruentex Construction & Development. He is also an adjunct professor in the department of civil engineering at National Taiwan University and a professor at Peking University, where he advises PhD students.
Dr. Yin read history at Chinese Culture University. He received a master’s degree in business administration at National Taiwan University and a doctorate in business administration at National Chengchi University.
In addition to his academic background in the humanities and business administration, Dr. Yin’s great interest in and devotion to interdisciplinary studies have made him an award-winning civil engineer and educator.
In 2004, Dr. Yin was named fellow of the Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering. In 2008, he was invited to join Russia’s International Academy of Engineering and also awarded the Engineering Prowess Medal, the academy’s highest honour. In 2010, Dr. Yin received the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research by the prestigious American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for his contribution in the area of construction technology research. He was the first person without an academic background in engineering to receive the award.
Driven by a firm belief that he should give back to the society that has enabled him to achieve so much, Dr. Yin has been investing in philanthropy and education for a long time, in the hope of creating a positive force in society and making a better world.
Dr. Yin’s biggest dream was to set up an international award. He has long had great respect and admiration for the Nobel Prize, so he established an award modeled on the Nobel. The Tang Prize rewards excellent research in the areas of Sustainable Development, Biopharmaceutical Science, Sinology (excluding literary works), and Rule of Law. Dr. Yin hopes to encourage experts to dedicate themselves to innovative research in these fields and to spur human development with first-class research.
Dr. Yin’s relentless enthusiasm for philanthropy was instilled through his upbringing, particularly the example set by his late father Yin Shu-Tien. Dr. Yin established a foundation in memory of his grandfather, Yin Xun-Ruo, to provide scholarships to students of families originating in Shandong Province to study Chinese literature and history. When Yin senior passed away, Dr. Yin also set up the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation to help with China’s higher education programs.
In the past few years, Dr. Yin has set up a number of foundations to serve people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and to foster more talented people for the nation (the Yin Xun-Ruo Educational Foundation, the Yin Shu-Tien Medical Foundation, the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation, and the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University). In 2012, Dr. Yin set up a global award, the Tang Prize, to spread his philanthropy across the world.
On Cancer, On Translational, Post-Translational, Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biological Processes: I told the World in three months while Recovering – Perspectives by LHB, MD, FCAP
Posted in CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cell Biology, Signaling & Cell Circuits, Regenerative Biology and Medicine, S-nitrosylation, Scientist: Career considerations, Signaling, Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine, Translational Research, Translational Science on May 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »
On Cancer, On Translational, Post-Translational, Regenerative Medicine and Cell Biological Processes: I told the World in three months while Recovering – Perspectives by LHB, MD, FCAP
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
On Cancer – Publications of Dr. Larry H Bernstein
Cancer Volume One – Summary [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]
A Synthesis of the Beauty and Complexity of How We View Cancer
Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Epilogue: Envisioning New Insights [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]
Author & Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/29/epilogue-envisioning-new-insights/
Introduction – The Evolution of Cancer Therapy and Cancer Research: How We Got Here? [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Epilogue: Envisioning New Insights in Cancer Translational Biology – SEE Epilogue: Envisioning New Insights 3/29/2014 – [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Prologue to Cancer – e-book Volume One – Where are we in this journey? [Placement in Cancer Volume One by Dr. Williams – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP
On Translational, Post-Translational, Regenerative Medicine – Publications of Dr. Larry H Bernstein
Post Acute Care – Driver of Variation in Healthcare Costs [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Reporter and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Post-Translational Modifications [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/posttranslational-modifications/
Post-Translational Modification of Proteins [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/posttranslational-modification-of-proteins/
Introduction to Translational Medicine (TM) – Part 1: Translational Medicine [Aviva will place as Intro to VOL 4 Part 1]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/25/introduction-to-translational-medicine-tm-part-1/
Introduction to e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four Part 2: Regenerative Medicine [Aviva will place as Intro to VOL 4 Part 2]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Summary of Translational Medicine – e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four – Part 1 [Aviva will place as Summary to VOL 4 Part 1]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
A Powerful Tool For Repairing Damaged Hearts [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/30/a-powerful-tool-for-repairing-damaged-hearts/
Summary – Volume 4, Part 2: Translational Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases [Aviva will place as Summary to VOL 4 Part 2]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Epilogue: Volume 4 – Translational, Post-Translational and Regenerative Medicine in Cardiology [Aviva will place as EPILOGUE to VOL 4]
Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Author and Curator, Volume Four, Co-Editor
Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Content Consultant for Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, Co-Editor of Volume Four and Editor-in-Chief, BioMed e-Series
Modified RNA Induces Vascular Regeneration After a Heart Attack [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Cell Biological Processes – Publications of Dr. Larry H Bernstein
A Tribute to Johannes Everse [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/a-tribute-to-johannes-everse/
What comes after finishing the Euchromatic Sequence of the Human Genome? [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Transcriptional Silencing and Longevity Protein Sir2 [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
S-nitrosylation signaling [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/s-nitrosylation-signaling/
Analysis of S-nitrosylated Proteins [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/21/analysis-of-s-nitrosylated-proteins/
Acetylation and Deacetylation of non-Histone Proteins [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Analysis of S-nitrosylated Proteins: Detergent-free biotin switch combined with liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry [article ID assignment by Dr. Larry – PENDING]
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP
Pharmocogenomics is a Multidirectional Street
Posted in Best evidence, Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, Biological Networks, Gene Regulation and Evolution, Biomarkers & Medical Diagnostics, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Computational Biology/Systems and Bioinformatics, Diagnostic Immunology, Drug Toxicity, Evidence-based decision-making, Innovation in Immunology Diagnostics, Pharmacogenomics, Pharmacotherapy and Cell Activity, Translational Research, Translational Science, Uncategorized on April 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Pharmocogenomics is a Multidirectional Street
Author and Curator: Demet Sag, PhD
There was a big undertake between CTD-Pfizer collaboration for manual curation of scientific articles text mined for drug-disease has a great partnering between public and private entities. This effort leads common needs of the environmental health science and pharmaceutical communities. This drug and phenotype interactions as a result of a collection of 88,629 articles relating over 1,200 pharmaceutical drugs to their potential toxicities in cardiovascular, neurological, kidney and liver .
In one year, CTD biocurators curated 254,173 toxicogenomic interactions
152,173 chemical-disease,
58,572 chemical-gene,
5,345 gene-disease and
38,083 phenotype interactions
Furthermore, drugability and genomics depends on bioinformatics for finding drug targets. In this token the Drug-Gene Interaction database (DGIdb) can be reached at http://dgidb.org/.
This database has an advantage since helps to prioritize drug development based on mutation types and potential druggable genes from existing resources.
Another method is pathway screening to identify the druggable genes that leads to development of an organism or cell or divergence during evolution.
However, this process is not a straight line there are other factors that needs to be applied for a proper target identification. There are warning signs and cautions needs to be taken.
Identification of these side effects in addition to toxicities is important for the proper development. This is like yin and yen since one side trying to make it correct and the other side is destroying yet the positive affects wins the case.
Anticoagulant therapy has many adverse effects yet the patients prescribed since there is a need to correct the case yet there are expected adverse reactions.
As a result, predicting the side effects and benchmarking them to understand the real problems in vivo is necessary.
Yet, still there is one more step to combine off target and side effects before making a decision based on the original drug- gene targets. The applications opens doors from cell modifications specially in stem cells, vaccines, sensors, bioinformatics and wireless technologies as examples of the few.
There are other applications of knowing the gene-drug relations such as development of biosensors, sensors, vaccines, immune responses and redesigning or remodulating the cells. In 1995 the complete genome of a pathogenic bacterium published . Since then virologist immunologists, vaccineoloist are all lookin for epitope mapping tools to screen vaccine candidates. This new wave is called ‘genome to vaccine’.
The examples of bionformatics tools currently, in use are for example, include to search for unique or multi-HLA-restricted T cell epitopes (piMatrix), to find epitopes that are conserved across variant strains of the same pathogen (Conservatrix), to identify similarity to ‘self’ (BlastiMer) or to assemble putative epitopes into strings if they overlap (EpiAssembler).
As a result, several solutions are developed to identify novel targets by complementing or combining methods, or following up the clinical trials, subtractive genome analysis are the name of few. In addtion, the combinatorial algorithm for maximizing inclusion drugs but minimize off-targets is necessary.
REFERENCES
Targeted journal curation as a method to improve data currency at the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database.
Davis AP1, Johnson RJ, Lennon-Hopkins K, Sciaky D, Rosenstein MC, Wiegers TC, Mattingly CJ.
Database (Oxford). 2012 Dec 6;2012:bas051. doi: 10.1093/database/bas051. Print 2012.
DGIdb: mining the druggable genome.
Nat Methods. 2013 Dec;10(12):1209-10. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.2689. Epub 2013 Oct 13.
Griffith M1, Griffith OL, Coffman AC, Weible JV, McMichael JF, Spies NC, Koval J, Das I, Callaway MB, Eldred JM, Miller CA, Subramanian J, Govindan R, Kumar RD, Bose R, Ding L, Walker JR, Larson DE, Dooling DJ, Smith SM, Ley TJ, Mardis ER, Wilson RK.
Davis AP1, Wiegers TC, Roberts PM, King BL, Lay JM, Lennon-Hopkins K, Sciaky D, Johnson R, Keating H, Greene N, Hernandez R, McConnell KJ,Enayetallah AE, Mattingly CJ.
Database (Oxford). 2013 Nov 28;2013:bat080. doi: 10.1093/database/bat080. Print 2013.
Davis AP1, Wiegers TC, Johnson RJ, Lay JM, Lennon-Hopkins K, Saraceni-Richards C, Sciaky D, Murphy CG, Mattingly CJ.
PLoS One. 2013 Apr 17;8(4):e58201. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058201. Print 2013.
Systematic identification of proteins that elicit drug side effects.
Kuhn M1, Al Banchaabouchi M, Campillos M, Jensen LJ, Gross C, Gavin AC, Bork P.
Mol Syst Biol. 2013;9:663. doi: 10.1038/msb.2013.10.
Prediction of immunogenicity for therapeutic proteins: state of the art.
Moise L. Curr Opin Drug Discov Devel. 2007 May;10(3):332-40.
De-immunization of therapeutic proteins by T-cell epitope modification.
De Groot AS1, Knopp PM, Martin W.
Dev Biol (Basel). 2005;122:171-94.
From immunome to vaccine: epitope mapping and vaccine design tools.
Novartis Found Symp. 2003;254:57-72; discussion 72-6, 98-101, 250-2.
Combinatorial therapy discovery using mixed integer linear programming.
Pang K1, Wan YW, Choi WT, Donehower LA, Sun J, Pant D, Liu Z.
- 2014 Feb 21. [Epub ahead of print]
Other articles on Pharmacogenomics published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:
Pharmacogenomics for Cardiovascular Diseases
Blood Pressure Response to Antihypertensives: Hypertension Susceptibility Loci Study
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Statin-Induced Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Reduction: Genetic Determinants in the Response to Rosuvastatin
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
SNPs in apoE are found to influence statin response significantly. Less frequent variants in PCSK9 and smaller effect sizes in SNPs in HMGCR
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Voltage-Gated Calcium Channel and Pharmacogenetic Association with Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes: Hypertension Treatment with Verapamil SR (CCB) vs Atenolol (BB) or Trandolapril (ACE)
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Response to Rosuvastatin in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction: Hepatic Metabolism and Transporter Gene Variants Effect
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Helping Physicians identify Gene-Drug Interactions for Treatment Decisions: New ‘CLIPMERGE’ program – Personalized Medicine @ The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Leveraging Mathematical Models to Understand Population Variability in Response to Cardiac Drugs: Eric Sobie, PhD
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/22/leveraging-mathematical-mod
els-to-understand-population-variability-in-response-to-cardiac-drugs-eric-s
Is Pharmacogenetic-based Dosing of Warfarin Superior for Anticoagulation Control?
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN









