Pfizer invests $300 mln in Irish biotech facility

Pfizer Inc, the world's biggest drugmaker, is to invest 190 million euros ($297 million) establishing a new biotech plant in Ireland for the production of experimental medicines, it said on Friday.

It is the first time that Pfizer has placed such internal biopharmaceutical clinical development outside the United States.

The facility at Shanbally in County Cork will be located on a site adjacent to Pfizer's existing operation in Ringaskiddy and will be completed by the end of 2009.

Nat Ricciardi of Pfizer Global Manufacturing said the investment reflected the U.S. group's determination to become a leader in biotech medicine, which is a growing focus for many drug companies worldwide.

GNA-glycerol nucleic acid—a synthetic analog of DNA

Biodesign Institute colleague John Chaput is working to give researchers brand new materials to aid their designs. In an article recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Chaput and his research team have made the first self-assembled nanostructures composed entirely of glycerol nucleic acid (GNA)—a synthetic analog of DNA.

“Everyone in DNA nanotechnology is essentially limited by what they can buy off the shelf,” said Chaput, who is also an ASU assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “We wanted to build synthetic molecules that assembled like DNA, but had additional properties not found in natural DNA.”

The DNA helix is made up of just three simple parts: a sugar and a phosphate molecule that form the backbone of the DNA ladder, and one of four nitrogenous bases that make up the rungs. The nitrogenous base pairing rules in the DNA chemical alphabet fold DNA into a variety of useful shapes for nanotechnology, given that "A" can only form a zipper-like chemical bond with "T" and "G" only pair with "C."

In the case of GNA, the sugar is the only difference with DNA. The five carbon sugar commonly found in DNA, called deoxyribose, is substituted by glycerol, which contains just three carbon atoms.

In nature, many molecules important to life like DNA and proteins have evolved to exist only as right-handed. The GNA structures, unlike DNA, turned out to be ‘enantiomeric’ molecules, which in chemical terms means both left and right-handed.

“Making GNA is not tricky, it’s just three steps, and with three carbon atoms, only one stereo center,” said Chaput. “It allows us to make these right and left-handed biomolecules. People have actually made left-handed DNA, but it is a synthetic nightmare. To use it for DNA nanotechnology could never work. It’s too high of a cost to make, so one could never get enough material.”

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Scientists Identify Potential Alzheimer’s Drug Target

Researchers found that the thromboxane receptor, which is activated by isoprostanes, may be a new therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous studies have shown that two isoprostane isoforms are know to be elevated in AD and AD-like diseases but not in other neurodegenerative diseases.

Investigators found that injection of one of these isoprostanes increased the number of amyloid plaques in a mouse model of AD. They further showed that activation of the thromboxane receptor increased levels of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and its cleavage products including those that form plaques. The thromboxane receptor also increased the stability of APP mRNA and this likely provides more substrate for amyloid production, according to the researchers.

The scientists also showed that thromboxane receptor antagonists reversed the effects of isoprostane injection in mice and also reduced plaque formation in Tg2576 mice that were not treated with isoprostane.

The researchers involved in this study were from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Temple University. The study is published in the April 30 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Dr. Reddy’s Expands U.S. Presence with Purchase of BASF’s Contract Manufacturing Franchise

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories plans to acquire BASF’s pharmaceutical contract manufacturing business and related facility in Shreveport, LA. The transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of fiscal year 2009.

This segment of BASF involves the manufacturing of generic prescription and over-the-counter products for branded and generic companies in the U.S. It reportedly recorded revenues of $43 million for 2007.

X-men The man who grew a finger!

SiFi's alway feature and fantasize sprays and powders that can instantaneously close wounds catalyzing then and there the process of tissue regeneration. Every time you watch
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine regenerate and heals his wounds, wonder how?

How? Well that's the truly remarkable part. It wasn't a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story.

Mr Speivak's brother Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him the powder.

For ten days Mr Spievak put a little on his finger.

"The second time I put it on I already could see growth. Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger.

"It took about four weeks before it was sealed."

Now he says he has "complete feeling, complete movement."

The "pixie dust" comes from the University of Pittsburgh, though in the lab Dr Stephen Badylak prefers to call it extra cellular matrix.

"I think that within ten years that we will have strategies that will re-grow the bones, and promote the growth of functional tissue around those bones" Says Dr Stephen Badylak University of Pittsburgh

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Researchers Find that a Small Molecule Can Activate an Important Cancer Suppressor Gene

By activating a cancer suppressor gene, a small molecule called nutlin-3a can block cancer cell division, according to researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. This activation of the p53 gene leads to cellular senescence. An opportunity for new genetic mutations occurs each time a cell divides, so limiting the number of cell divisions in a cancer cell inhibits tumor progression.

Activation of p53 can suppress tumor growth through more than one mechanism. It can interfere with the cell cycle, prompting a cell with unrepaired DNA damage to commit suicide through a complex signaling pathway called apoptosis. Alternatively, p53 may trigger cellular senescence in response to DNA damage or cellular stress.

The expression of p53 is regulated by Mdm2, a protein that is overexpressed in several human cancers. Nutlins are small-molecule inhibitors that prevent the p53 protein from forming a complex with Mdm2, resulting in activation of p53. Previous studies have shown that nutlin can induce apoptosis in human cancer cells.

Protein interactions play significant roles in various aspects of the structural and functional organization of the cell, and their elucidation sheds light on the molecular mechanisms of biological processes. Having a network of protein interactions will allow researchers to identify drugs that target pathways related to a specific disease while avoiding pathways associated with unwanted side effects and toxicity. Key to advancing our knowledge of biochemical pathways and networks is the intelligent analysis and mining of available literature, which is a vast resource of information on thousands of interactions.

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Drug Target For The Most Potent Botulinum Neurotoxin Determined

Brookhaven Lab researchers Subramanyam Swaminathan, Desigan Kumaran and Richa Rawat.

"We have found a highly efficient inhibitor of botulinum neurotoxin type A - the most potent of seven neurotoxins produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. This finding can lead to a very effective drug to stop the devastating effects of the toxin," said Dr. Subramanyam Swaminathan,

Botulinum neurotoxin -- responsible for the deadly food poisoning disease botulism and for the beneficial effects of smoothing out facial wrinkles - can also be used as a dreaded biological weapon. When ingested or inhaled, less than a billionth of an ounce can cause muscle paralysis and eventual death. Although experimental vaccines administered prior to exposure can inhibit the destructive action of this neurotoxin - the most deadly protein known to humans -- no effective pharmacological treatment exists. Scientists have now taken the first step toward designing an effective antidote to the most potent form of botulinum neurotoxin.

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